Is this a legitimate card?

Simple question.

Is this a legitimate card? 

A few of these cards from 2003 have turned up on e-Bay ranging from the $99 price range to $9.

The $99 card does little to explain the pedigree except to say it is 'extremely rare' and it is 'Jacoby's first rookie card from summer ball in Alaska'. 

The $9 card explains in greater detail, and there are 10 available. 

'This is Jacoby Ellsbury amateur baseball card. The Alaska Summer League is a amateur only league for young college players on the west coast to play in all summer. ITS NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY PRO-LEAGUE.   All the players don't (sic)get paid. This was made by the team it appears. This is NOT a mainstream issued card. The team had them made in town and they are on card stock.'

 However the picture is terrible and it is possible that anyone with decent scanner/printer and equipment could whip up their own.  The seller, although has a few negative feedbacks, appears to be legit.
It would be a nice addition to the collection but is it the real thing?

1964 Topps Giants

Ahhh...1964... the year Richard Kimble continued to outwit the Stafford Police,

Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright delighted us with western adventures on the Ponderosa Ranch,

Gilligan, et al are castaway on a deserted island,

'You Rang' becomes a popular catch phrase,

Herman Munster scares the crap out of thousands of children,

Russel Crowe, Courteney Cox, Stone Cold Steve Austin are born, 

The Beatles ride high in the Top 40 with 'She Loves You'.

Top of The Pops airs on the BBC for the first time,

Elvis as Rusty Jackson, sang and wiggled his hips alongside the gorgeous Ann Margret, in Viva Las Vegas,

Dick Van Dyke acted/sang, in what is regarded as the worst cockney accent ever and

Sean Connery, arguably the best Bond, fought Oddjob in Goldfinger, while From Russia with Love still excited cinema fans the world over. 

What a great year!

I had never really thought about collecting this particular oddball set before now. I'm not sure whether it really qualifies as oddball anyway. In 1964, Topps produced, along side the 587 card regular set, a number of stand alone sets-Topps Giants, Topps Stand-Ups and Tattoos.

 

One of the many pursuits I have is to collect the complete 1964 Topps set, hoping to snag some of the other '64 sets produced along the way. Even cards based on the design of the 1964 cards are falling within this particular pursuit.

So when this graded '64 Topps Giant recently appeared on eBayUK, I just had to have it within my collection.  

Getting excited about a bag of dirt.

Oh dear, to get excited about a little bag of dirt is bordering on sad.

It reminded me of an incident many years ago when a friend of mine, who supported Charlton Athletic, carefully planted a small 1 foot square of turf in his back garden that he had removed (one would think illegally) from the playing surface of Charlton's home ground 'The Valley'.
Charlton, who had been struck by a monetary crisis, had decided to stop playing at the ground they had played at for over 70 years and ground share with a close rival Crystal Palace. The rivalry between these two clubs may not be as fierce as it is at Liverpool, Glasgow or Chicago but it comes close. There was understandably a level of animosity towards the current owners of the club, so when the final whistle blew at the final game at The Valley, supporters flooded onto the pitch to say farewell to the team and the beloved ground. Suddenly people began to dig up the pitch and take various other souvenirs; corner flags, seats, fencing, roughly anything that had stopped moving. My friend  and his dad carried the section of turf home and lovingly planted it in the backyard. So proud of this small piece of grass that he placed a white picket fence around its border and tendered it more carefully than any other part of the garden. He showed the turf to anyone who visited, like a person who owned a original artwork would delight in informing visitors 'It's an original Picasso, you know!' There was, I think, a hope that it would eventually spread to the rest of the lawn and he could inform visitors -'It's the original Valley turf, you know!'

The Fenway dirt was part of a very interesting package that arrived from Jason at The Writers Journey.It contained a bonanza of ephemia relating to the Red Sox.
Red Sox schedules.

Stickers

An oddball collection of baseball cards. Including this amazing 3D 'card' that, when placed on a stand, can be set on a rocking motion so that Nomar hits a ball and make an incredible catch.

And of course the Fenway Park dirt.

What did I do when I received this package. I opened the dirt to smell it, hoping that in some way it would give me a feel of the ballpark. I poured a small pile into my hand examining it closely. No bat fragments or Red Sox DNA, just a nice pile of red grit, coarser than I thought it would be. I was expecting a more sandy feel, must really hurt to slide on.

Thank you Jason for this amazing treasure trove of Red Sox items.

1999 Skybox Molten Metal Xplosion inserts

I was watching a number of items from one seller, who was off loading a few cards mainly from brands such as Pinnacle, Skybox, Score and Fleer. I was intrigued by the of number of more 'interesting' cards advertised as inserts, however the seller was asking ridiculous prices and not surprising very few, if any, were snapped up by collectors in the UK.
Patience however is a virtue.

I'm not sure what to make of these baseball cards, if you can call them that. They are more like a printing plate.

They come from the 1999 SkyBox Molten Metal set.

The 1999 SkyBox Molten Metal set was issued in one series and distributed in six-card packs with a suggested retail price of $4.99. The set features 100 of the game's top veterans in the Metal Smiths (cards 1-100) subset with an insertion rate of 4:1 pack; 30 of today's power hitters in the Heavy Metal subset (101-130) inserted one per pack; and 20 of 1999's hottest rookies in the Supernatural subset(131-150) with an insertion rate of 1:2 packs. The cards are silver-foil on 24-point stock and enhanced with additional holofoil and wet laminate.

These cards are from the SkyBox Molten Metal Xplosion parallel set

Randomly inserted in packs at the rate of one in two, this 150-card set is
parallel to the base set printed on metal stock with added etching, rounded
corners and foil stamping. A promotional card featuring Kerry Wood was
distributed to dealers and hobby media several weeks prior to the product's
national release. This unnumbered card can be readily identified by the text
"PROMOTIONAL SAMPLE" running diagonally across the back.

Although it wasn't the sample card that I was able to pick up, instead 7 'metal ' cards:

#15 Ruben Rivera Padres

#24 Sean Casey Reds

#32 Ray Durham White Sox

#34 Richie Sexson Indians

#75 Eric Karros Dodgers

#145 Sammy Sosa Cubs

#146 Kerry Wood Cubs

Not sure which genre of collecting to place these. Oddball, gimmick, parallel, inserts, alongside printing plates? At first I thought that Skybox must have had a hell of a time disguising these to ward off would be pack searchers. But the weight of these cards is not dissimilar to some of the blanks inserted in more recent Upper Deck products, roughly 3-4 regular cards.

Topps Baseball Talk Collection

Its funny what you find searching ebayUK when there is very little of note, that is unless you need to complete the 1991 Fleer set or 1987 Topps . If you willing to take your time and wade your way through the sea of yellow and brown, a couple of oddball gems appear.

I bid on three packs of 'Topps baseball Talk collection cards', the details in the auction were very thin except to say they were rare. Unfortunately the actual sports talk player wasn't included and a further search put it way out of my league.
You can be forgiven for thinking that the cards are regular 1989 Topps however there are some significant differences. Look at the comparison between a regular Topps and the Talk collection card.
Size obviously and smaller tweaks such as the Topps logo and each of the player cards in the set have a facsimile autograph. Turn the card over and you'll notice something completely different.

On the back of each of the Talk cards is glued a small transparent disk. This disk or mini record, when inserted into the LIN SportsTalk player, would play 2-3 minutes of audio. The player cards included interviews by Don Drysdale and Joe Torre. There were also specially narrated historic games and cards of former players. The Talk cards were sold in packs of 4 and according to the checklist included, there were 41 different sets of 4 cards to collect.

Unfortunately the cards were not as successful as hoped. The Talk players broke easily and the cards had poor audio, so NFL and NBA versions were shelved indefinitely.

The three sets I purchased included:

Set 4:
1956 World Series Game 5 Yankees vs Dodgers
Ozzie Smith Cardinals
Ron Darling Mets
Pete Incaviglia Rangers

Set 5:
1986 National League Championship Series game 6 Astros vs Mets
Kirby Puckett Twins
Dennis Eckersley Athletics
Gregg Jefferies Mets

Set 7:
1984 World Series Game 5 Tigers vs Padres
Keith Hernandez Mets
John Franco Reds
Eddie Murray Orioles

If you after more information look up these:
Sports Talk Wikipedia
Internet Museum of Oddity Records

What baseball cards are these?

Although I haven't written for a few weeks, I have still been purchasing baseball cards and the draft posts are now starting to pile up.

I bid on what I thought was Dover Reprints of Goudey, Playball and Diamond Stars. Included in this eclectic mix were three cards that I presumed were European origin but searching has left me a little more confused.


This little card comes from a Dutch company, no not a card company, but a foodstore Hema, which started in the 1920's in the Netherlands. I know that the Lucifer Brand was matches and these little labels (as it measures 2cm x 3cm) were include in a matchbox. I have been able to find an odd assortment of flowers, cards, trains, picturesque scenes and discovered that this particular label was from a sports series. The other sports included soccer, boxing and athletics but not any 'American' sports. But that is about it. No date of issue or collectablity.

Next is this card from series called 'This Modern World' produced by a German company called Milkana. It's still around and a search reveals more cheeses than I am comfortably able to comprehend. What is confusing is the London address and the suggestion that an album is obtainable from your grocer. The Houston Astrodome must have been an engineering marvel when it was finished in 1964, so I am guessing a date around then but what other cards were in the set remains another mystery.

The third and fourth cards are my favourite. At first I thought of the European market because of the dual French/English. Big B might be able to help with these, as they are actually Canadian and were released in 1945. I found this picture while searching, which shows that the cards came in strips of 4, in the Kellogg's cereal.

This particular strip shows an interesting combination of aircraft, fencing, yachting and baseball. The two cards I have, come from the 2nd Series of 30 cards both have a perforated edge on the left side, so that fits with this set above.

Any information or pointing in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

1994 Leaf SLIDESHOW insert

I was reminded of the many hours spent in the dark during geography lessons at college when I saw this 1994 Leaf insert.
My geography teacher was a widely travelled gent and delighted in showing us his collection of snapshots. My dad had a slide projector. It was mind numbing process of 1 slide in, 1 slide out the other side. My geography teacher, at the forefront of technology, had a remote controlled carousel that held, what felt like, a thousand slides. How many pictures can you enjoy of Ayres Rock in different hues at sunrise, sunset or when it rains. It's lovely, highly significant to the Aboriginal people but after hundreds of slides it's still a rock. Is it me or do slides take the magic away.
He even tried a few times with mild success, of playing music while the slides rotated and clicked past. Sometimes it would come grinding to a halt with the occasional slide refusing to 'drop'.
So in 1994 Leaf produced a set of 10 Slide show inserts which tried to capture the real look and feel of a slide.The picture is printed on sheet of plastic film. I presume this is an attempt at nostalgia as slide projectors had been replaced by computers and video. More recently by DVDs, interactive whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations.
Perhaps in 10 years, maybe 20 there will be an insert that looks like an iPod. You can drag your finger across the card to reveal not one but many pictures of the player, perhaps it will play a video of the player in action. Within the realms of possibility?

1995 Upper Deck Denny's baseball cards

When I purchased nine cards from this set I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I knew that Denny's was a restaurant, naturally I have watched American TV programs and Denny's is mentioned regularly. I had to research on the interwebs to find out more. My favourite from the Denny's menu is called:

'The Grand Slam Burrito'.
All your favourite ingredients from the Original Grand Slam-two scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and pancakes with syrup topped with melted American cheese and hand wrapped in a large flour tortilla. Grilled and served with crispy hash browns.

My arteries started to close just reading about it.
The only equivalent I can find here in the UK is the Little Chef. The restaurants can be found up and down the country usually located in motorway services, sweet escapes from the driving madness, truck drivers and tiredness. Motorway services are also, on Saturdays, full of travelling football fans moving from one stadium to another. The Little Chef offers a range of healthy salads, drinks and an American Style Breakfast for £6.75. Described as

Two rashers of bacon, a generous portion of free range scrambled eggs and two of our famous breakfast pancakes drizzled with sweet maple flavoured syrup.
Have a nice day!

There are 28 cards in the set, so I am presuming the cards were given away with a meal. Either one at a time or the whole set. This is not an usual practice, my children have collected all manner of items from McDonald's, Star Wars cards from KFC and plastic figures from Burger King. I'm not sure that Little Chef even has a child's meal.

However the cards from Denny's are of the holographic variety. Not really a new innovation in 1995. The backgrounds are exactly the same with a portrait of the player in front of the same crowd. Impressive cards but Mike Piazza smiles and then frowns at you, depending on the way you hold the card. Bret Saberhagen does the same. Both men are sporting moustaches. Spooky!

The cards I received were:
#4 Albert Belle Indians

#5 Jason Bere White Sox

#6 Roger Clemens Red Sox

#9 Andres Galarraga Rockies

#13 Barry Larkin Reds

#15 Don Mattingly Yankees

#20 Mike Piazza Dodgers

#22 Bret Saberhagen Mets

#28 Matt Williams Giants

Trade with Patricia and Lucy from Dinged Corners

This is a trade I have been looking forward to this trade with Dinged Corners for two reasons. Another state to check off my list of trading states. These cards come from Santa Fe in New Mexico! And the other reason is that I read and enjoy their blog immensely, so it is a privilege to receive cards from them. To top the fine selection of baseball cards, there was some random non-baseball cards, which I like and a personal letter from Lucy. My children love it just as much as I do that packages arrive from the USA. They are very distinctive, the postage label with the pink bar and the green customs label. We have learnt a great deal about where in The States different baseball teams are located and we find where in the US or Canada the packages originate. So my girls loved the personal note that came with this and don't be surprised if they don't attach their own personal message to your next package Lucy!
So onto the cards Red Sox unless otherwise stated:

1981 Donruss #337 Steve Renko1985 Topps #134 Terry Francona Expos

1989 Fleer #633 Wade Boggs

1989 Topps #2 Wade Boggs

1993 Cracker Jack #14/24 Harry Hopper Boston Americans (very tiny card)

1999 Pacific #4/4 Carl Yastremski

1999 Team Best #59 Jason Michaels Batavia Muckdogs

1999 UD Choice #2 Jin Ho Cho
2003 Topps #316 Mark Malaska Bay Rays (In person auto)

2007 Topps #630 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2007 Topps #641 Hideki Okajima

2007 Topps World Baseball Classic #22 David Ortiz

2007 Turkey Red #42 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2007 Turkey Red #119 Hideki Okajima

2007 UD Future Stars #14 Curt Schilling

2008 A Piece of History #13 Josh Beckett

2008 Allen+Ginter #296 Hideki Okajima

2008 Bowman #BCP56 Iggy Suarez

2008 Bowman Chrome #BCP56 Iggy Suarez

2008 Topps Heritage #358 Hideki Okajima

2008 Topps Heritage #392 Pedroia, Youkilis, Lowell

2008 Topps T205 #2 Clay Buchholz

2008 Topps T205 #15 David Ortiz

2008 Topps T205 #15 David Ortiz mini

2008 UD Timelines #30 David Ortiz

2009 O-Pee-Chee #WK4 J.D.Drew

2009 ToppsTown #25 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2009 ToppsTown #49 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2009 Upper Deck #429 Josh Beckett

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1081 Jason Varitek

and the random cards

1992 Marvel masterpieces Spider Man vs Venom

1992 Pacific World War II 'Do with Less'

1993 Topps Doug #36

2007 DAV Red Sox mascots

Thank you Patricia and Lucy for the super cards. Hope we can trade again soon.

Fleer Skybox EX 'Plastic' cards

I make no apology for this, but I am a complete sucker when it comes to this type of card. The clear plastic cards that Fleer, in the guise of Skybox EX, foist upon collectors firstly in 1999, and then again and again for the next few years, are the sort of cards I like to have in my collection. Long lasting, strong and transparent.

Although I can see why collectors may baulk.

In Australia they have plastic money, yes plastic notes of various denominations,made I am to led to believe of recycled supermarket carrier bags. When you see and feel this money it just isn't right. Real money should be metal or paper, credit cards are plastic. So it may be roughly the same thing with baseball cards. They should be made of cardboard. Vary the thickness, add a piece of bat or clothing, draw on it if you like (but don't put stickers) but never, NEVER make them from plastic.

Whatever your take is on this type of card, they have to be admired for innovation and trying 'something different'. Is there any harm in that? Some collectors spend a fortune making their cards plastic anyway through the grading process. As I have heard it put recently, the card collecting hobby is for enjoyment. Although I must mention the 2003 version of EX tried a little too hard to be different. The background is very sparkly, too sparkly like lip gloss. If you have young daughters you will know what I am talking about. If not, try to get a hold of some of these cards to get feel for them yourself. I like shiny cards but even this is too much for me.

1997 Upper Deck SPx holoview cards

In a recent trade with John from Old School Breaks he sent along these three 1997 SPx 'holoview' technology cards. The hologram may have been the gimmick of the late 90's, I am however very impressed with these cards. When it comes to cards which are slightly off the mainstream I am a complete sucker and fall for them hook, line, sinker and copy of angling times.
There are according to my research a number of parallel cards, Bronze, Sliver, Gold and steel. Also these cards would have set you back an amazing $5.99 for a pack of 3 cards. I am not sure which BIG Mo and Nomar Garciaparra cards I have here, my guess being the Steel variety with the enhanced silver foil and your bog standard base cards. Whatever they may be I wish they would bring them back.

2000 Topps Tek

Recently Chris Harris of Stale Gum busted, what he called Junk Wax, of 2000 Topps TEK. It must the plastic fantastic nature of these cards but after watching the video, I felt a real need for Topps TEK. Luckily a stumbled across a auction for 21 off these little beauties, in France of all places. The seller was practically begging to have these taken of their hands. The French hey, no understanding of culture or art or things of beauty.
It looks as if I wasn't the only collector who was hypnotised by the allure of Topps TEK.
Cardboard Junkie,
The Hamiltonian,
Dinged Corners,
are all confessing to the irresistible nature of Topps TEK.
Hello my name is John and I am a Topps TEK addict (and possibly a big girl according to Dinged Corners?)

Promotional Sample baseball cards

An interesting find on e-bay recently, this collection of 6 promo/sample cards. The cards arrived from Germany, of all places. I know very little about them. They are designs that I have not come across before, except the Ben Grieve Skybox EX century. I am curious as to whether they were cards soon to be released or whether they are 'We are contemplating this designs, what do you think?'.Answers on a postcard, sort of cards. Either way, how do they make their way into the public domain. Are they sent to card shops, magazines or collectors? In Germany?

This is obviously pre-Internet boom of blogging. Now companies send a 'box' of specially selected cards to Beckett Media or a random box to Wax Heaven. So I can only presume that the Promo cards has gone the way of the Dodo. David at Tribecards has an appreciation for sample cards, so they will be winging their way over to him soon.

I think the card companies have come to understand that plastic cards, like the skybox EX, Pacific Invincible and ToppsGallery Proof Positive are not too popular and the attempts at this style of cards have fallen rather flat. I like them, but not for aesthetic reasons, mainly for their oddball nature.

1980 Topps Baseball variations

I realised I needed to attack my 'Pursuit for 1980 Topps' with a bit more gusto and started to search e-bay US for some sellers with the 'complete your set' tag. I stumbled across, to my surprise, quite a few. There were two types; those that said they had some 1980's Topps and those that listed all the numbers they had available. I purchased 100 from 1 seller and 75 from another on the same day. The 100 cards charge for postage was $13.95 ! (When it did arrive the postage cost $8.50- that is some very expensive packaging.). The second lot of 75 cost a mere $5.00, but has yet to arrive. Hmmmm. I'm not here to talk about the irregular postage system but in my search I stumbled across:

An unopened pack of 3 1980 Topps cards free with Squirt (washing liquid?, Actually a soft drink- thanks Steve.),

An unopened pack of 3 1980 Topps cards free with Hunts bread and

An unopened pack of 3 1980 Burger King 'Pitch, Hit & Run cards.

These were according to the seller '...regular 1980's Topps cards...plus... the possibility of a Rickey Henderson Rookie...' I didn't think for a minute that these would be un-searched. I have also come to appreciate the variety of places that baseball cards can be obtained like cheese, dog food, fast food places and now bread! Plus my oddball meter did a little dance. I bid and won all three.

They arrived today.
In the 1980 squirt packet:
A squirt card with Lifetime .300 hitters statistics on the back ,
#421 Doug Bird (needed)
#596 Rick Matula
#662 Red Sox future stars.

In the 1980 Hunts bread packet:
A Hunts bread card with Players with 3000-or-more hits statistics on the back, oddly with a O-Pee-Chee branding,
#216 Phil Mankowski
#417 Craig Chamberlain (needed)
#598 Fred Kendall.

Finally the 1980 Burger King:
Hang on a minute, red backs! Not blue! What is going on here?
Luckily the Burger King card is a checklist and I have realised that this is not the regular 1980 Topps set, but rather a 33 card set of Pitchers, Hitters and Runners. Hence the name.
It looks like Topps, feels like Topps, made by Topps but not Topps.
Included was:
#3 Rollie Fingers
#16 Keith Hernandez
#32 Frank Taveras

Sadly I have missed the Pitch, Hit and Run competition running from July 7th -13th, its for boys and girls aged 8 to 13 years. Oh well.

If you can shed some light on these cards, it would be greatly appreciated.