It's that time of year!  Spring training is right around the corner, and 2017 Topps Series 1 will be releasing on February 1st.  The flagship release of Topps is one of the most anticipated products every year, as it has strong history behind it and it signifies the start of the baseball card collecting season.

This year's base design breaks from the standard borders we've seen over the past few years and, dare I say, looks a bit innovative compared to what we've seen from base Topps in the past.  If you look at the Kris Bryant card below, you'll see that they've moved away from a traditional border that has been a trademark in many of their releases.  The design allows more of the picture to be visible and limits the excess coverage, outside of the name, team and logo.

​The initial checklist provided by Topps highlights the strength of the rookie class that will be included in Series 1.  Andrew Benintendi, Dansby Swanson, Alex Reyes, Yoan Moncada (in his Red Sox uniform, but now with the White Sox), Alex Bregman and David Dahl are just a few of the rookie cards that will be included in the first series.  Typically the Topps Update series contains some of the top rookie cards each year, but it is nice to see that the first release of the baseball card collecting season will be filled with some promising young talent.

Personally, one of my least favorite aspects of Topps flagship product is the overwhelming number of inserts (11 sets) and parallels (10 versions this year, not including printing plates).  Again, just my personal collecting preferences, but I feel that the large number of insert sets and parallels in this product typically deter me from purchasing it in greater quantity.  Those are precious spots in a pack that could be replaced by base cards that I need to complete a set.  The First Pitch inserts are back, and seem to be the one insert set that collectors seem to enjoy (I enjoy them too, at the right price).

Although typically not the driving force of sales for the product, but the release will also contain relics and autographs, although this is likely not the release for you if you are primarily looking for relics and autographs.  Topps has plenty of other releases that have more of that content, and personally, the sticker autographs in this product are a huge turn-off.

Well, those are my initial thoughts on the release.  I'm sure I'll be buying some at some point, either a box or blaster or singles (especially Benintendi RCs!).  Again, I think that this release of flagship typically gets purchased by the most collectors, as it's the first release of the year and we're probably all hungry to rip something from 2017 at this point.

What card(s) are you most excited about from the 2017 Topps Series 1 release?  Let me know in the comment section below - and perhaps there is a collector out there who will pull the card and trade it to you!

I have always been a fan of the Panini Prizm product for basketball, and I enjoy collecting the base rookie cards from each year. This year's rookie class has been pretty weak, with the only exception being Ben Simmons. Despite being injured and not playing an NBA game yet, he is still the hottest rookie card to collect from this years draft. He was a clear #1 pick heading into the draft, and with the amazing play of Joel Embiid, fans are anxiously awaiting to see how the two will play together.

I had bought a jumbo box of Prizm when it was first released, and I was fortunate to pull a base Ben Simmons RC, especially since the rest of the box was awful. While strolling through Target the other day, I decided to pick up a blaster of Prizm and see if I could get another of his base RCs for my collection. When I opened the last pack, I was stunned to see that I had pulled the best possible retail-only insert in this year's set - a Retail-Only Orange Wave Ben Simmons RC numbered out of 25 (link)!

I've decided to try and sell the card, as I already has his base RC and could use the funds to buy other PC items I've been wanting to add to my collection.

I'm interested to hear what your BEST retail pull has been. Share your stories in the comment section below.

Picked up a few Rookie Card PC items recently.  I ended up pulling the trigger on a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. RC PSA 10.  Found a great sale at 4SharpCorners.com, one of the best sites to shop if you're a PSA collector.  Couldn't pass up the price, much lower than all recent eBay sales.

I also picked up a 2009 Topps Heritage David Price RC PSA 10.  I've been wanting to add one to my collection for Red Sox RCs, plus I like the Heritage cards so this was a great one to pick up.  Still keeping my eye open for other David Price RCs.

Finally, I picked up a 2009 Upper Deck James Harden RC.  James Harden is having a phenomenal season and I wanted to pick this one up before/in case it explodes like Steph Curry did.  The guy is playing amazing basketball now that Dwight Howard is out of the way, hopefully he'll get some nice pieces (or get traded to the Celtics) and pick up a championship soon.

Hope you enjoy seeing the new items.  Until next time.

Yikes, sorry for the long pause between posts.  Life has been busy.  2016 has been a great year for me from a #collect standpoint.  Here are a few highlights as we near the end of the year:

1) Attended my very 1st National Sports Collectors Convention, which was held in Atlantic City.  What an amazing experience!  There are so many amazing dealers, you get the chance to interact with the card companies themselves and the best part....the PEOPLE!  I cannot tell you how great it was to finally meet so many of my friends from Twitter who I've been talking to for years but never had a chance to meet in person.  I obviously picked up a ton of really cool exclusives from the show, attended the Topps Q&A session and received a Ginter 1/1 exclusive to the show and picked up a few great PC items.  I wish I had the personal life & money to attend every year, and while I doubt I'll be able to attend the show this year, I'll definitely be anxious to go to one soon.

2) At the start of the year, I wrote about how there were five cards that I wanted to focus on trying to own this past year.  Well, as the year comes to a close, I'm happy to say that I was able to purchase 2 of the 5 cards that I set as my goal.  I decided recently to scratch the PSA 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card from my list.  I think I can buy one at any time, and don't feel its enough of a challenge to keep on my list for 2017.  I may end up buying one soon, but not important enough to be on "The List" (shout-out to anyone who watches WWE and gets that joke).  The two cards that I was NOT able to find and purchase this year are the 1939 Play Ball Ted Williams RC (only a few at the National and none were even close to being centered) and the 1983 Topps Jim McMahon RC.  The two cards that I was able to purchase: a beautiful PSA 6 1960 Carl Yastrzemski RC (picture in the My Collection section) and a PSA 8 1986 Fleer Charles Barkley RC (picture in the My Collection section).  I'm happy that I was able to get 2 of the 5 this year and I'm already thinking about the five that will make "The List" in 2017.

3) What an amazing year for my #focus!  I was so focused on adding Red Sox cards to my collection.  I was able to add my first T206 card ever (a Red Sox player), picked up a PSA 10 Topps Heritage High # Mookie Betts RC before the market went crazy with the price, picked up the previously mentioned Yaz rookie card and a few other gems.  I'm still focused on the Red Sox (especially RC cards) and hope to add Fisk, Evans, Rice and Lynn to my collection soon.

Well, enough for now.  I hope to post more often, keep me honest and tweet me on Twitter if I haven't posted in awhile.  Best of luck with your #collect in 2017 and have a happy holiday season (if I don't write again before then)!

Well, the Kobe Bryant era is over...and he never surpassed Michael Jordan as the G.O.A.T.  Being that he was retiring, and is a first-ballot HOFer, I decided to add a few Kobe rookie cards to my new PSA collection.  I'd really like to add his Finest and Topps Chrome, it'll eventually happen, but these were two of my favorites from that year.  Enjoy and sorry for the gap between blogs.

Kevin McHale, #32, belongs in every conversation about who is the best power forward in NBA history.  Kevin McHale played a pivotal role in the Boston Celtics legacy in the 80's and there will always be uncertainty around how his career would have gone without Larry Bird on the team.  He's still one of the best ever and one of the best Celtics players to ever put on the uniform.  His rookie card captures one of his key moves and while his game wasn't flashy, he was a master of the low post and would likely had success no matter what team he played for - similar to Scottie Pippen in that regard.

Topps Heritage has all of the potential to be the best release each year.  Real cardboard stock, familiar designs, minimal inserts, one series release - a throwback to what set collectors and long-time collectors would want in a product.  But, it's a Topps product so of course they screw it up.  Believe it or not, some people in the hobby still want to build a set.  Key word = build.  Not buy a set without the fun of collecting, not be forced to buy cases upon cases to complete a set but actually buy a reasonable and manageable amount of the product and be able to hand collate a set.  What makes Topps Heritage an impossible set to build?  SHORT PRINTED BASE CARDS!  Not only are they short printed, they are typically the star players in the set.  It's not like Topps said "oh, let's short print the same way we did in the original release".  Why would Topps care about their history?  Instead, Topps says "let's short print the best guys so large case breakers and group breakers can get the most return on their purchase".  

I've put a ton of time, effort and $$ into trying to build the 2012 Topps Heritage set.  This was my first attempt to build a Topps Heritage set, as I was attracted to all of the things mentioned previously - 4 years later, I'm still 19 short prints away from a full set.  Since that point, I said to myself - why even bother with this release?  It is truly "uncollectible".  For some silly reason, I started to feel excitement for the 2016 Heritage release and was looking on eBay/Twitter to see if there were any good deals on base sets (since I knew I'd never be able to afford enough to hand collate).  Then I saw the checklist and the short print cards in this years release include: Kershaw, Ortiz, Harper, Trout, etc.  Pretty much anyone you'd actually be excited about pulling in a pack.  Yet again, Topps caters to the case breakers & re-sellers rather than the collectors.

This exact topic was discussed on Twitter today by a few people I'd consider "collectors".  Here are some snippets from the conversation:

• Re: SPs - "At least knock them down to reasonable amount like 25.  Shouldn't have to buy a case to complete a set.  I won't."
• "I bought a Heritage box every year from 2001-14.  Some years 2 boxes, blasters, looses, etc...Guess how many sets I've completed?  None!"
• "It's a set that is, ironically, uncollectible.  It's not realistic to collect this set as, well, a set."

Given the price point of the product, nostalgic aspect and minimal inserts, Topps is once again flipping the bird to set collectors and, well, collectors by including so many SPs in this years set.

Did you collect basketball cards back in 1991?1991 was a pivotal year for a hobby surge in basketball cards.  Upper Deck launched its first basketball product and the first key marketable rookie was entering the NBA since David Robinson.  Larry Johnson was at a level that Shaq's RC reached, before Shaq was a rookie.  1991 Upper Deck basketball was the first of its kind, and Larry Johnson was coming off an amazing college career that led to crossover into mainstream media.

Larry Johnson would go on to lead a long and successful NBA career, and it was cool to pick up this rookie card in PSA 10 form as it was a HUGE deal when I was a kid collecting cards.  While I've moved away from the NBA a bit, there is still something cool about picking up key NBA RCs from guys I grew up watching and rooting for.

Rik Smits was my boyhood hero.  My parents had attended Marist College and were season ticket holders for the men's college basketball team.  I used to love attending the games and shooting hoops on the court after the game.  Then, they had signed this really tall kid who was very raw but had a ton of promise.  I think I watched almost every home game Rik Smits played in college and met him on a number of occasions.  As a kid who was always the tallest in his class, it was amazing to stand next to a guy who was 7'4".  Rik was always very nice to everyone and spent a ton of time with kids at the summer basketball camps or at other alumni events.

I followed him throughout his NBA career and wanted to add his best rookie card to my collection.  I may have to find a few other cool Smits cards to add to my PC as well.

Sorry for the wait.  Things have been crazy on my end lately, but it doesn't mean I've fallen off the map.  A lot has changed since my last post:

1. I've switched from BVG/BGS to PSA for my graded card needs.
2. I truly enjoyed the Heritage High # release; always enjoyed Heritage, just wish the base sets were smaller & without SPs.
3. I've been selling a TON of digital cards lately, like a LOT of them.
4. Using the digital card sales, and sales from BVG/BGS cards that no longer fit into my defined PC - I've been able to purchase some cool cards for my collection.
5. I'm putting a lot of my PC effort around PSA graded rookie cards, and have vowed to decrease the amount I spend on wax boxes this year.

So, now that we're caught up.  Here is a cool card that I picked up this week via eBay.  I was a huge Chris Mullin fan as a kid, loved the style of his play and he had one of the sweetest jump shots in the game at the time.  

I hope to be more active in 2016, but I said that last year too.
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