The Trading Post #81: Bob Walk the Plank

Anytime something shows up from Matthew of Bob Walk The Plank, there are sure to be some hits inside. Autographs, relics, patches, mini batting helmets, there's really no telling just what surprises await.

Matt and I aren't engaged in an ever-escalating battle of tailor-made trade packages like he is with Jaybarkerfan, but we have exchanged cards a few times. My autograph collection wouldn't be what it is today without him, and the hits just keep on coming.

2015 Topps Tier One Acclaimed Autographs #AA-VC Vinny Castilla /399 (AU)

Literally.

Topps Tier One is normally way out of my price range. It's comprised entirely of relics and autographs, not even offering a traditional "base" set. It's a set that's entirely meant for player and team collectors, leaving set collectors to select one of Topps' many other fine products. There isn't even an actual card "number" to be found, as they're all lettered.

This looks more like something Panini would put out, or maybe Pinnacle ages ago. There's lots of gold foil here, a serial number right on the front, and even a tiny spot in the lower left where Topps managed to squeeze his position. Castilla's autograph matches other examples in my collection, and also a 5x7 photo that I got at my local library as a kid. Rockies memorabilia was a great incentive to get kids like me to read, especially when Pizza Hut's Book It promotion was idle. Pizza Hut was smart. They managed to instill a lifetime love of both reading and pizza.

2007 Topps Highlights Autographs #HA-MH Matt Holliday (AU)

This Matt Holliday card is pretty clearly from 2007. The black border matches the general theme of the base set that year, even though the little filmstrip squares are missing from the corners. It's definitely thinner than Castilla's card, the autograph is on a sticker, and there's no mention of the print run. It's definitely aimed at a different market segment than Topps Tier One, but pulling this out of a box of 2007 Topps would be pretty surprising. You expect a card like Castilla's when you spend so much on a box of Tier One. Pulling a card like this when it's unexpected offers quite a thrill on its own. Just see that Dee Gordon printing plate I found in a blaster of Opening Day, or the David Wright autograph from a hobby box.

Or when it shows up in the mailbox with a bunch of Costco flyers, for that matter.

2016 Topps Strata Autographs Blue #SA-TM Tom Murphy /99 (AU)

We're back to the world of on-card autographs for this final card, and it's from Topps Strata, another high-end set that I'll never pay full price for. It has completely transcended the use of cardboard; like Topps High Tek, it's printed on a thick acetate.

Each part of the design has a varying level of transparency. The autograph square is completely clear, the various banners and lines are a bit darker, and Murphy's image itself is nearly opaque. For $80 a box, I'd hope it looks like this. And that's a pretty low print run, the scarcest card in this whole post, and among the scarcer in my whole collection.

Murphy is one of the exciting young Rockies that has already shown flashes of brilliance in the Majors. Late this season, he crushed a 482-foot home run to left field, one of the longest in Coors Field history. The Rockies have good depth behind the plate, and Murphy's presence on the roster likely means that will be the case for several years to come.

Bud Black, the new Rockies manager, has an interesting group of young players to work with. Hopefully he can lead a few more of them to being worthy of inclusion in a high-end set like Topps Strata or Tier One.

The Trading Post #39: Bob Walk the Plank

I don't know where he gets them all, but Matt from Bob Walk the Plank seems to have an endless supply of relics and autographs to send for a trade. His previous trade included the most unusual manufactured relic I've ever seen, a miniature batting helmet. There was nothing quite like that in this shipment, but I still got to add to my rapidly growing collection of Rockies autographs.

2009 Upper Deck Inkredible #JB Jeff Baker (AU)

I'm woefully behind on this blog, as I'm pretty sure this package showed up sometime in March. Still, like many of you, I have dutifully set my incoming trades aside to ensure I give them proper credit, even if it's a bit overdue.

With the recent trade of Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins to Toronto, none of the players who were on the Rockies for their historic and memorable 2007 playoff run remain in Denver. Jeff Baker was on that team, and while he came through with a few key hits, you don't see too many cards of him, let alone autographs.

This is a dreaded sticker autograph, but this is the first one I've really seen an issue with. The sticker was affixed at a slight angle (perhaps to ensure the actual signature was on straight), and there's a little bit of wrinkling on one of the sticker's corners, which I only noticed upon removing it from its top-loader to scan. Regardless, it's one of only a few Jeff Baker cards I own, and certainly the first autograph.

2005 Throwback Threads Throwback Collection Material #33 Larry Walker /500 (MEM)

Pinstripes are a bit of a rarity in baseball uniforms these days, particularly among expansion teams, and especially on a road jersey. I don't go crazy for swatch relics, but when I do, I always enjoy pinstripes. One of my first relic purchases was a Josh Beckett uniform swatch, which had a turquoise pinstripe.

2002 Sweet Spot Swatches #S-JBe Josh Beckett (MEM)

The (Florida) Marlins of the time kept just bit of turquoise in their uniform, but thankfully dialed it way down from the retina-searing batting helmets of their inaugural year.

1993 Stadium Club #554 Orestes Destrade

They were a strange team, those early Marlins. They used an odd red clay or something in the warning track at Joe Robbie Stadium, and their grounds crew gave us perhaps the most entertaining rain delay in baseball history. But hey, they have two more World Series titles than their fraternal twin Rockies, so what do I know?

2002 E-X Behind the Numbers Game Jersey #9 Todd Helton (MEM)

Longtime hometown favorite Todd Helton was well-represented in this trade, and I quite like the design of this relic card. There's a healthy amount of Rockies purple, not too much foil, and a taken-quite-literally theme of "Behind The Numbers", as they framed a swatch of alternate purple jersey behind Helton's now-retired #17.

2002 Playoff Piece of the Game Materials Bronze #POG-82 Todd Helton Bat /250 (MEM)

Matt threw in a Helton bat relic, as well. Design-wise, I like the jersey card more, but this one has some interesting stuff on the back. For one, a serial number, but this Donruss brand took authenticity quite seriously, including a photo of the actual relic used to create the card.

2002 Playoff Piece of the Game Materials Bronze #POG-82 Todd Helton Bat /250 (MEM) (Reverse)

Though it doesn't really prove anything, at least they saw a decade down the road when collectors seriously started questioning the authenticity of their relic cards. And it's more than Topps gives us these days, as their lawyers happily assure us that the relic "is not from any particular game, event, or season."

Collectors that buy enough product always seem to have a knack for pulling one particular player. When it comes to autographs and relics, for me that player is...

2003 SPx Young Stars Autograph Jersey #YS-JA Jason Jennings /1295 (MEM) (AU)

This is at least third time that I've gotten a Jason Jennings autograph or relic in trade, though it's the first with both types of "hit" on one card (and a serial number that I only noticed after scanning).

Jennings wasn't even a Rockie for all that long, which is a shame, because it's no secret that our pitching is pretty atrocious. A gem like Jennings or Ubaldo Jimenez only seems to come along once or twice a decade.

Speaking of that, the Rockies best hope for a decent young pitcher in the next 3-4 years is expected to make his MLB debut tomorrow.

2015 Bowman Chrome Bowman Scouts Top 100 #BTP-19 Jon Gray

Help us, Jon Gray. You're our only hope.

The Trading Post #9: Bob Walk the Plank

In response to the first (and so far only) trade package I sent to Matt at Bob Walk the Plank, he sent over three cards to "even things out" as a follow up to his first shipment.

Only three cards, you say? Technically, yes. But all three of these are considered "hits", few of which are found in the discount boxes I tend to prefer. Observe:

2014 Topps Update Trajectory Autographs #TA-RB Rex Brothers (AU)

Thanks to Matt, I now have an autographed card of Rockies relief pitcher Rex Brothers [insert "who are the Rex Brothers?" pun here]. My autograph collection has grown by leaps and bounds in recent months, primarily thanks to the generosity of my fellow bloggers, as well as from two Opening Day hobby boxes I purchased from Dave & Adam's a few months ago.

Fun Fact: This highlight slid under the radar last season, but in June, Brothers became the first Rockie to pitch an "immaculate inning" by striking out three batters on nine straight pitches.

Next up is a relic card of Troy Tulowitzki, who seems to spend about as much time in trade rumors as on the disabled list.

2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Relics #FRB-TT Troy Tulowitzki B (MEM)

Immortalized on a card is (allegedly) a piece of one of Tulo's bats. The authenticity of relic cards has been called into question many times before, and while jersey swatches could plausibly have been used in an actual game, these splinters have never had the look of ash or maple to me. They look a lot more like those balsa wood gliders that tended to last about twenty minutes before breaking. This relic even appears to have a seam in it.

I'd just be curious to have a botanist's expert opinion on whether this could have once been a maple tree. But maybe it's one of Tulo's balsa wood gliders, which would somehow be even better than a piece of a bat.

Or, scandalously, perhaps it's a piece of cork, which has indeed happened.

Finally, a "helmet relic" contained in what might be the thickest card I've ever beheld. This is what's known as a "manufactured relic", an item that's not explicitly game-used, but is still rather unusual relative to the typical "color photograph on white cardboard" product.

2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #121 Jeff Baker AU SP (RC)

I have never seen anything quite like this. I've seen plenty of jersey swatches, bat fragments, even the occasional patch of leather from a glove or ball, but this is quite original! It's a rigid, smooth plastic, and it strongly reminds me of those tiny plastic baseball helmets that I used to get in gumball machines at the grocery store as a kid.

Unusually for a relic card, this has a simple numerical card number, unlike the "FRB-TT" alphabet soup of Tulo's card number above. It's clearly atypical for cards like these to be part of a base set.

Jeff Baker is a right-handed hitter, so the ear flap of this helmet is on the wrong side, but regardless, there's also an on-card autograph of the former Rockies' utility player, who was a member of the 2007 team that made it to the World Series.

Authenticity aside, relics and autographs have always been among the rarer items in packs and boxes, so that scarcity alone gives them desirability. And in exchange for a stack of Pirates cards, you can't beat them!

The Trading Post #4: Bob Walk the Plank

Matthew might have one of the best blog names in this whole community.

Bob Walk the Plank is now on my rapidly growing list of trading partners. I sent him some Pirates in a blind trade, and he quickly responded with a shipment of his own. His trade post is already up, and he appropriately picked out a few Bob Walk cards to display.

What an unfortunate name for a pitcher, by the way. Almost as bad as Grant Balfour.

Matthew must pay a fair bit of attention to the MLB at large, as one of three autographed cards he included was from Drew Stubbs' collegiate days. One has to keep up pretty closely to follow all these players around.

2008 Donruss Threads Diamond Kings Signatures #DK-9 Drew Stubbs /465

Stubbs is a fairly obscure player, and he didn't have a spectacular year with the Rockies, but I always appreciate cards of current or former Rockies, even if they're pictured on a different team. Pre-expansion draft cards of the early Blake Street Bombers—such as Walt Weiss on the A's or Vinny Castilla as a Brave—make pre-1993 sets a bit more interesting.

1992 Fleer #666 Vinny Castilla RC

It seems that the Rockies used to do quite a few more transactions than they have in recent years. There has been persistent buzz that Tulowitzki will be traded to the Yankees, but other than that, they've been pretty quiet on the trading front. Perhaps their long-awaited new GM will change that a bit.

But I'm glad they hung on to this guy for his whole career.

2005 Donruss Elite Series Black #ES-24 Todd Helton /100

Todd Helton was a Rockie for 17 years, in fact, matching his uniform number, which the Rockies retired in August. The concession stand in left field at Coors Field is even named after him.

You know you've made it when you have your name on a hot dog stand.

In a team bag separate from these "hits" was a complete oddball set! Sets like these rarely contain more than a couple dozen cards, so it's surprising how unusual it is to find the whole checklist in one place.

1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch #9 George Brett

1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch #20 Kirby Puckett

More than anything, the thing that bugs me about unlicensed sets are those giant blank baseball caps. But I guess they call them oddballs for a reason. One can only imagine how much Cap'n Crunch was required to obtain the entire 22-card set—and in what state the roof of your mouth would be in after all that cereal.

Thanks to Matthew and others, I have plenty of cards to sort! This will be a fun activity to do with the World Series on TV, which commences Tuesday. I wouldn't mind seeing George Brett's Royals take this year's championship. The Giants are not to be counted out, as we've seen in recent years, but the Royals haven't lost a game this whole postseason, even eclipsing the record tied by the Rockies in their 2007 run.

Thanks to the generosity of my readers, I've done nothing but trade posts on this blog all month, and there are still more where that came from!