The Trading Post #142: Padrographs: Abner to Zimmer (Part 1: Stadium Club)

Right around the time pitchers and catchers reported to spring training 2020 (the first one, that is), Rod at Padrographs: Abner to Zimmer reached out and said he had a stack of Rockies cards to send my way. This was Rod's first time sending me cards, thus his first appearance in The Trading Post theme. His blog vastly predates mine, and he has a pretty sweet custom logo in his header. I just today noticed that the Swinging Friar is holding a Sharpie.

His niche is collecting autographs from all Padres who ever appeared on the team's active roster. In over a half-century, that's got to be quite a few players, but only a dozen have eluded Rod's collection. Despite that dedication, Rod still found more than enough Rockies to send my way, enough that I'm turning this into a three-parter.

2016 Stadium Club #23 Nolan Arenado

We'll kick things off with what might be the greatest Coors Field card of all time, possibly even eclipsing my 2016 Card of the Year. This being Memorial Day, I'm sure I would have been to a game or two by now. But not this year, for painfully obvious reasons. I'm missing Coors Field something fierce, so this card is a perfect addition to my collection.

I mentioned in that Card of the Year post that a Tornadough pretzel from the stand under the left field scoreboard is one of my favorite ballpark snacks. That's the red and yellow stand you see under the Coca-Cola sign. There's lots more to explore on the concourse. Flanking the Tornadough stand, I see what might be a cash-only beer stand on the right, and the #17 Helton Burger Shack on the left, which is partially obscured by the Stadium Club logo.

Trevor Story hits home runs up there sometimes, by the way.

Funny story about the cash-only beer stands. Throughout MLB, they cut off alcohol sales at the end of the 7th inning. I was running dry right around that time during a night game up on the third deck. The lines at the main concession stands looked long, so I tried one of the cash-only spots. It became clear that the 7th inning was rapidly drawing to a close, so the vendor told the few of us in line to put our money down on the table, thus completing the sale. Judging by the sound of the crowd, the inning abruptly came to an end, but the vendor had already "sold" his last few of the night, and he finished pouring those beers for us who had the quick reflexes to ante up without violating the letter of the law.

Back down on the left field concourse, if you walked a little further toward center field, you'd pass a small apparel outlet, the center field camera platform, the outdoor studio overlooking the concourse where the TV crew does the postgame recap (that's where you can get on TV!), and a walkway underneath the Rockpile, one side of which is adorned with plaques of all the construction firms that built Coors Field. I can't recall which, but my dad knew a couple of those companies back from his environmental remediation days. A few more steps and you'll come to the bullpens and a spectacular view of the Coors Field forest.

On the other hand, if you walked toward left field, you'd find the frozen yogurt stand, behind which is a small seating area and the perfect spot to see into the players' parking lot. There are always a lot of lifted Jeeps and pickups and such in there, but you'll see the occasional Porsche or Ferrari. One of the guys was driving a black Lamborghini Urus last time I looked. Returning to the concourse, you'll find an apparel shop, the Famous Dave's barbecue stand which occasionally obscures the scoreboard with smoke, and a playground. I'm too old for that now, but I was eleven when Coors Field opened. Maybe even then I was a little too old for a playground, but my nephew seemed to enjoy it last summer.

Yes, I know how much it shows that I miss going to games there.

Back to the card. Checking the scoreboard, this game against the Dodgers is just getting underway. There's no score yet, but the Rockies already have three hits in the bottom of the first. That means Nolan Arenado is likely batting with the bases loaded. The Dodgers visit Denver all the time, so it might be tricky to pinpoint this play, but we have one helpful clue. The clock on the scoreboard shows 6:27, and I've been to enough games to know that this is likely a Saturday game with a 6:10 start time. Unless it's very early in the season, weeknight games usually begin at 6:40. Checking the 2015 schedule, there was only one Saturday home game against the Dodgers, and that was September 26th.

Sure enough, Arenado was batting with the bases loaded and no outs in the first inning. Following his buddies getting on base with three singles, A.J. Ellis called for a pitch and Arenado blasted it over the center field wall for a grand slam, his 40th homer of the season. The Rockies would close the game in similar fashion, with Carlos Gonzalez hitting a walk-off shot in the bottom of the 9th, just a little bit to the right of where Nolan's landed.

This could be a post of its own, that's how much I could say about this card. But let's carry on.

2019 Stadium Club #5 David Dahl

David Dahl, a lefty, lets us see the other side of Coors Field. He's taking a warm-up swing as he prepares to step into the box. We don't have quite as much detail in this photo, but we can see the far edge of the Rockies dugout and the camera well on the first-base side. Above the seats beyond, you can see the bottom edge of the Mountain Ranch Club, a full-service open-air restaurant that overlooks the field. It's one of the very few places in Coors Field I haven't managed to set foot in.

Below that on the main concourse is the Sandlot Brewery, which I've mentioned before as the birthplace of Blue Moon. It's my favorite spot in the whole ballpark to grab a beer, and they have a much better selection than the few macrobrew options available at most of the concession stands. Although if that's what you're after, they sell $3 Coors Lights in The Rooftop area prior to first pitch.

Just below the Stadium Club logo is the start of the right field mezzanine. It's not my favorite spot to sit, as you can't really see anything that happens at the right field wall. It's pretty far away from the plate, too. But that's roughly where I sat for my first game at Coors, and it's a good spot for moms who want to take little kids to the game without worrying about incoming home run balls.

Let's be honest, there really isn't anywhere in Coors Field that a ball can't reach. but halfway up the second deck in right field is a pretty safe and somewhat shady area if you're there for a day game.

The last story I have for that part of the park happened just below the green beam at the base of the mezzanine, right about where I took this picture before the NLDS game in 2018. I mentioned it once before but in less detail. I was twelve, my second game ever at Coors, the Rockies were playing the Pirates. Former Rockie Charlie Hayes hit a home run to left field, though not as far as Trevor Story.

Anyway, before the game, my family and I were standing on the main concourse just below that beam. A batting practice ball came screaming in and bounced off it right toward where I was standing. I valiantly jumped up and tried to barehand it, but the next thing I knew, I was picking myself up off the concrete and looking up at two men high-fiving after making the catch.

It would have been a tough catch no matter what, but as best I can remember it I was basically body-slammed away from that ball by a couple of grown men. It probably wasn't as dramatic as that, but long story short, it would be another eighteen years before I finally snagged a foul ball. Christian Yelich fouled that one off, back when he was a Marlin and long before he reached MVP caliber.

2019 Stadium Club Power Zone #PZ-13 Todd Helton

Like Yelich and Dahl, Todd Helton was another lefty. There isn't much of Coors Field to see here, but it's a Stadium Club insert nonetheless. Power Zone inserts pop up quite frequently, but the wild design was toned down a bit in 2019, at least the foil portion. This background wouldn't be entirely out of place in Topps Fire.

The card back tells us all about Helton's heat map. He liked them up-and-in, and had an .879 slugging percentage on pitches in that part of the zone. Me, I liked them low and away, but I showed a little bit of opposite field power once or twice on pitches up in the zone. If only I had enough speed to leg out a home run. Those types of hits usually ended up just being triples for me in Little League and high school gym glass.

Helton remains the only Rockie with a retired number, although Larry Walker's retirement ceremony for #33 was supposed to happen over a month ago. I even had tickets. But if Helton gets his own burger shack, surely one of the many concession stands in Coors Field could bear Walker's name. Maybe one out in right field behind where he used to play, near where I almost caught a foul ball in 1996. But it would be tucked away under the stands and unlikely to ever make an appearance on a card.

I originally intended for these three to be part of a post with the rest of the Topps cards I picked for the blog, but this got way out of hand. I'll save those cards for another post, and bask in the memories of the 87 games I've attended at Coors Field, jogged just a bit by Topps Stadium Club.

Blog Bat Around: What I Collect (inspired by Night Owl Cards)

To follow up my rather late review of 2018 Topps, I've got a post that's reasonably on time. All throughout the Cardsphere this month, collectors have been sharing the specifics of "What I Collect", a theme started by none other than Night Owl Cards. It's been unbelievably busy at work this month, and next week will be no exception, but I wanted to carve out some weekend time to join in the Blog Bat-Around fun. I previously hopped on the Kevin Bacon train, but this one's a lot more involved, and I got to pick and choose cards from all over my collection.

We'll lead off with a subject that will surprise absolutely no one.

1. Rockies

2007 Topps #150 Todd Helton

I wasn't always a team collector. I still don't really fully identify as one, as you'll see by the remaining content of this post. It's just so easy to be one in this community. Everyone wants a place to send their unwanted cards, and since there are just 29 teams besides yours, you don't have to look too hard to find a home for them. Unless, of course, we're talking about the Marlins.

Whoever eventually proclaims themselves as a Marlins collector will no doubt be buried in an avalanche of cardboard the likes of which even Wes couldn't match. I have my stack of Marlins extras safely tucked away like the rest of you, waiting for the day they'll have a home. I also have a few spare Royals cards nearby, if anyone wants to claim those.

So I collect Rockies. For better or worse, they are my team. They are my team in the #SuperTraders group, if that's still a thing. They are my team in pretty much every group break I buy into. They are my team when most of you trade with me. They are my team when I go to the ballpark. They were my team a decade ago when my sister and I went to Spring Training in Tucson. They are especially my team during the rare occasion when they make the playoffs. And they're very often my team when I write about baseball cards, as you can see from over four years of this blog's existence.

And who better to represent the Rockies than the face of the franchise, Todd Helton? The only Rockie with a retired number was my entry in a previous Blog Bat Around started by Collecting Cutch. That 2007 Topps card above was #11, the final reject that didn't make my Top Ten list. It hits one of my mini-collections, which we'll get to, but that card has been patiently waiting its turn on this blog since last year. To my knowledge, no better card exists that shows Helton's Mantle-esque post-swing pose, and the black borders and facsimile signature give the Filmstrip Set a retro feel.

2. Sets

2016 Stadium Club #105 Bryce Harper

They're less of a focus these days (see section 1), but if there's a set I like, I still go after it. I usually don't have the patience to build sets by hand (1993 Fleer being one exception), so when I do end up with a full set, it's usually because I just bought the factory set. It's easy, less expensive, and I like the pretty boxes. I've been doing that with Topps for quite some time, and my collection of complete Topps base sets goes back to 1986. I even have a whole blog tab dedicated to the sets I've completed, which is a helpful reference when visiting the discount table of a LCS.

Of course, I realize that not all sets come factory-sealed. In fact, most don't, something that bugs Heritage collectors year after year. But even if not, like Stadium Club, I'll still get a blaster or two, or at least some value packs. And I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled at card shows.

It's hard to quantify exactly what makes me like a set. A sense of nostalgia goes a long way, like with 2011 Topps Heritage (based on the '62 set). Once in a while I stumble across an old gem like a box of 1993 Leaf and I'll have one of the series done in one fell swoop. Anything on that blog tab that's a single series was probably done that way. Sometimes I just like a set, period. 2011 Topps Lineage is an example of that. But generally, design and photography will seal the deal, which is why I've been such a fan of Stadium Club since its resurgence in 2014.

Topps has been raiding the Getty Images archives for some time now, and they've come up with lots of memorable shots. Bryce Harper under the lights at his home park results in a great night card from a favorite brand of mine. Not only that, but this is one where we're given enough detail in the scoreboard to date this to July 7th, 2015. The Nats lost that day, facing the Reds and Johnny Cueto, who ended up with a complete game shutout. But as Harper waited his turn on deck in the bottom of the 6th, there was still plenty of time to stage a comeback.

He struck out, but that's just one at-bat out of many. He's had many successful at-bats, so many that the "34" in his uniform number just might be the first two digits of a nine-figure contract he's expected to sign when he reaches free agency.

Who wouldn't want more of this set?

3. Inserts

2015 Topps Opening Day Hit the Dirt #HTD-03 Billy Hamilton

I'll get more specific, I promise. This isn't just a review of what types of cards exist in the baseball card hobby. The super-high end autograph sets aren't going to have a place here. But interesting insert sets from the basic brands you can buy at Target have a place in my collection. There are so many insert sets year after year that it's hard not to find a few to like. Stadium Club of course gives us great ones, and Topps Opening Day is usually good for a few too, like this one of Reds speedster Billy Hamilton. I'll be buying my annual blaster of Opening Day soon, and I expect to see a few more like this.

Which insert sets I chase are often determined in the same way as which main sets I chase. Sometimes they just catch my eye at a card show and I'm hooked. 2013 Topps Chasing History comes to mind, as does 2011 Topps 60. And we mustn't forget the Mascots set that Opening Day gives us every year.

I seem to have a knack for pulling NL Central inserts from my Opening Day blasters. There were Pirates galore last year. The NL Central is well-represented on this 2015 card, offering a rare shot of someone stealing third base.

I hope base stealing doesn't become an oddity like knuckleballs. As it is, Dee Gordon is basically a lock to lead the league in the statistic. I just don't want him to be one of just three or four guys still doing it, like the Niekro brothers and Charlie Hough.

4. Parallels

1994 Topps Gold #287 Mike Lansing

I'm a little bit pickier when it comes to parallels. I don't chase every color in the rainbow that Topps is doing these days, especially now that they got rid of borders. Purple borders are nice, especially on Rockies cards, but with the demise of Toys 'R' Us, the exclusive retailer of purple parallels, those won't be around anymore. Other coincidental color-coding is pleasing to look at, but they're more of a curiosity. What really interests me is when there are just one or two parallels to be found. Stadium Club First Day Issues, for example, 1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond, and Opening Day Blue cards.

But what first comes to mind when I think of parallels is Topps Gold. These were the first ones I chased, and I still enjoy running across these. I'll never pass one up at a card show. I also jumped at the chance to get a bunch from Matt at Summer of '74 recently. The above Mike Lansing card has been in my collection for longer, and there's no parallel set better represented in my collection than 1994 Topps Gold.

The horizontal layout makes this example stand out, as does the oddly-placed Topps Rookie Cup logo. It's partially obscuring the Giants catcher, possibly Kirt Manwaring, who had another cameo in 1994 Topps on Dante Bichette's card. On the other hand, that could be Jeff Reed, the Giants' backup catcher, because his black mitt is different than the tan one Manwaring wore on both Bichette's and Darrell Whitmore's 1994 cards.

Either way, they'd all end up being teammates on the 1998 Rockies. Well, except for Darrell Whitmore.

5. Overproduction

1992 Fleer Ultra #383 Darryl Hamilton

I came of age during the tail end of the baseball card bubble, and the earlier parts of my collection reflect that. Many of my overproduction cards are simply there because of pure abundance. I'm sure that is true for many of us. My first-ever packs were of 1987 Topps and 1990 Fleer. When I got a little older, the local Wal-Mart had a great supply of 1991 Topps, 1993 Fleer, and more. Even Toys 'R' Us was a good source for cheap cards like 1991 Score. 1988 Donruss still seems to sneak its way in whenever you're not looking, and 1991 Fleer can practically be seen from space.

It's everywhere.

I collected so many of these sets at so young an age that they're seared into my memory for the rest of time. There is no time period of cards, not even cards released mere months ago, that I remember as well as some of these sets. Case in point: I can tell the difference between 1992 Ultra and 1993 Ultra in a split-second glance.

Darryl Hamilton, the late ex-Rockie, got a great bunting shot in 1992 Ultra as a member of the then-AL Brewers. The bat itself has an interesting woodgrain pattern, and we can see the hollowed out top of the bat as we stare down the barrel.

Yes, I am completely certain this is 1992 Ultra as compared to '93. The team and position banner extends all the way to the border, the team's city is present, there is less gold foil, and most obviously, the marbled area at the bottom is a jade color, compared to the tan color in '93. That's about all there is to go on, but it's enough.

Just don't ask me to place a Bowman set any more accurately than plus or minus five years.

1990 Fleer #363 Larry Walker (RC)

Overproduction cards are so abundant that they've earned a second card in this section, this one from the aforementioned 1990 Fleer.

As a Rockies collector, I don't see a whole lot of this era via trade. Other than two or three cards from 1992, it took most brands until Series 2 of 1993 to give us any Rockies cards. So most of these that I don't already have tend to come my way in various 5,000 count boxes that dealers unload for peanuts as card shows wrap up.

But they're often a source of conversation, because that was when everyone else collected. Once someone knows I collect, the question about what their '80s cards are worth isn't far behind. Nick wrote all about this last month. One recent day at work, our regional VP asked me about his complete '82 Topps Football set and some late-'70s Pete Rose cards. I told him those are old enough that there might be a little value if they're in good shape, a few bucks. But earlier this week, Larry Walker's rookie card came up.

We were beginning a week-long training series for an upcoming system change. The trainer wanted us to go around the room for introductions and share a fun fact about ourselves. When it got to me, what else could I say besides, "I'm Adam K, <various info about my career>, and I write a blog about baseball cards." The next day when I sit down, a coworker sat down across from me who had a slight gleam in his eye. The conversation went something like this:

"So I have Larry Walker's rookie card."

"Oh? What was that, 1989 Fleer?" [my mistake, off by a year]

"Yeah, what's that worth?"

"About ten cents."

[hangs his head in disappointment] "What about like Randy Johnson..."

"Yeah, cards from that era aren't really worth they paper they're printed on, other than Griffey's rookie. That might go for about $25."

It's tough bursting people's bubbles, but I'm sure we've all had to do it. Anyway, I have Walker's rookie card too. And it's not even centered all that well.

I did have a friend who asked me about a 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson once, and I referred him right to SGC. But that is definitely the exception.

6. Coors Field

2014 Topps #379 Gerardo Parra

So far, my collection probably isn't terribly different from yours. But there are a few things that make it mine. Primarily, that would be my Frankenset of Coors Field cards. I've attended nearly seventy games at the ballpark, I've sat in every area, I've seen many wins, many losses, a few Hall of Famers, and many, many home runs. I know the park like the back of my hand, and I can pretty easily spot it when it's on a baseball card. This Frankenset currently stands at 143 cards, with about 60 more on the wish list (discovered thanks to many of your blogs), and another 25 or so that I rejected due to card number overlap.

Clearly, they don't even have to be Rockies to make it in. Many teams are represented, including the Expos, who had quite a few of their photos taken in Denver. I guess the photographers didn't want to schlep all the way up into Canada to get their images for 1997. For obvious reasons, the other NL West teams appear frequently, most commonly the Diamondbacks.

Gerardo Parra is now a Rockie, but he was a divisional rival from 2009-2014, and that puts him in the third-base dugout sometime in 2013. The press box and retro architecture behind the plate are visible in the background, but the purple "Coors Field" banner on the front edge of the dugout roof is one of the key telltale signs I use to locate a card to 20th and Blake. That banner used to be green (see Helton's card in section 1), and in the early days, it wasn't there at all.

A clear but rare shot of the stadium's architecture itself is a dead giveaway. Sometimes you have nothing more to go on besides a Rockie who is wearing pinstripes, but even that can be deceptive, as their road jerseys also had pinstripes in the early 2000s. Other notable features are the right field out-of-town scoreboard, the forest in front of the batter's eye (but don't confuse this with Cleveland or Anaheim), segments of chain link fence under the yellow line in various spots along the outfield wall, and of course Dinger.

If there's anything that makes my collection mine, it's this.

7. Shiny

2011 Topps Lineage Platinum Diamond #76 Roberto Alomar

I'm a sucker for shiny cards, whether it's gold foil, chrome, dufex, or just lots and lots of sparkly facets, like this Roberto Alomar card from 2011 Topps Lineage, a set I mentioned in section 2. I tend to prefer the obvious ones like Topps Finest or maybe Pinnacle Certified over something like Stadium Club Rainbow cards, which you have to hold up to the light just right to see what's going on.

Topps went a little overboard with this in 2011 for their Diamond Anniversary, and the Hall of Famer Alomar looks a bit fuzzy in this photograph. But shiny is shiny, and the large blue area of the outfield wall takes on a striking deep sapphire color when given the sparkle treatment.

Shiny cards tend to scan quite terribly, but in person they're always a sight to see. Once in a while the scanner gets it right (like this time), but more often than not, they look a lot darker and flatter than they really are.

There's a holy grail set out there in the land of shiny cards, which are the ultra-rare 1993 Finest Refractors. That's something missing from my collection, and a gap I'd like to remedy one day. Even the common cards are not cheap, probably $20 minimum, and for a name like Griffey, you'll be looking at a couple grand.

8. Serial Numbers

2003 Topps Chrome Gold Refractors #84 Derrek Lee /449

The first time I saw serial numbers on a card was at a card show in 2003. This card itself may have been purchased at that exact show, since I remember the 2003 Topps Chrome set quite specifically. I was astonished that I was holding something so rare in my hands, especially as someone who wasn't too far removed from buying packs of 1991 Score at Toys 'R' Us. To this day, these are one of my favorite types of cards to collect, and I even have the extra rare ones (less than about 50 copies) in toploaders kept in a two-row box along with my autographs, relics, and a handful of special favorites.

This particular Derrek Lee card is a Gold Refractor, noted as such in tiny print next to the card number on the back. Topps has gone back and forth on that many, many times, but in 2003 they were happy to specify what we were holding. The serial number is 042/449, not exceedingly rare but still worth mentioning. Like many of my favorite cards, it falls into a few of these categories. No one will question a Gold Refractor's shininess.

I'm a bit ticked at Topps for removing serial numbers from Opening Day Blue parallels, even though they're supposedly given a print run equal to the calendar year. Hopefully that returns someday, if it hasn't already in 2018.

9. Green

1994 Finest #185 Paul Sorrento

Finally, the last thing I'll mention are green cards. There's something about the color that just works when it's on a card. Maybe it approximates the field of play so well, reminding us that baseball is a summer sport, when the trees are in bloom, the sunlight lasts forever, the birds are singing, and the ballpark smells like fresh-cut grass if you sit close enough. It's one of my favorite colors anyway, but when it's on a card, it really stands out and compels me to linger just a little longer.

1994 Topps Finest was my first exposure to green cards, particularly a preproduction version of Andres Galarraga's card. I was hooked ever since. And even though they're not really my team, I've considered collecting Oakland Athletics cards to increase this portion of my collection, at least the cards from color-coded sets.

Paul Sorrento, the subject of the common card I pulled from a large stack of 1994 Finest, has the claim to fame of getting the first hit at Camden Yards, and just a couple days later hitting the first home run there. And that's appropriate, because Camden Yards was the first retro classic ballpark, the one that so many others emulated and brought a dark green color back into the setting of Major League Baseball games.

Picking this card was basically at random, and Topps could have given us any number of Finest Moments in Sorrento's career. But one about a brick-and-green ballpark is oddly coincidental. I'm not necessarily the type to believe in coincidences, but my dad would point that out as "a signpost that you're on the right path."

Of course, there are other parts to my collection, including a handful of vintage cards, some minis, the occasional relic or autograph, a couple dozen pins, and a complete run of Rockies pocket schedules. But I could fit all that into a pretty small space, and it's not where my focus tends to lie. If money were no object, I'm sure I'd chase some of the 1950s classics, and Nolan Ryan's rookie card is one of the first things I'd buy if I were to win the lottery. But what you see above is where I tend to spend my time and money when it comes to card collecting.

It's a diverse hobby, and I'm sure many answers will be different. Some will be very different. I hear there are even other sports. I'm one of only a couple Rockies guys in the community, so my chosen team sets me apart from the bloggers who follow the major market teams like the Dodgers, Cubs, and Yankees. But my niche is just right for me, and I'm glad you're along for the ride.

The Trading Post #57: My Best Friend Collects Chipper Jones

There isn't room for everyone in the SuperTraders group, but that hasn't stopped trades from arriving from elsewhere in the Cardsphere. You might call My Best Friend Collects Chipper Jones from Mark a newcomer, but he celebrates his one-year anniversary today! Join me in congratulating Mark on this milestone!

2014 Topps Archives #177 Carlos Gonzalez

CarGo seems happy about it, as he appears on a Topps Archives card based on the 1989 design. It's definitely no Stadium Club, but this set keeps growing on me year after year. There's just something so distinctive about the feel of Archives' card stock, which really helps differentiate them. Especially when it's an expansion team, it breathes new life into designs we've seen ten million times, and they even seem to use recycled photos less frequently than in other Topps sets.

Not that anyone would think one this is an original 1989 card, but there's not much risk of confusion anyway, unlike with the glossy reprints of very recent cards found in Cards Your Mom Threw Out and 60 Years of Topps sets. Night Owl made a point of how tough it is to tell the originals from the reprints on a series of Mike Piazza cards last week.

2015 Topps Archives #162 Nolan Arenado

Plus, it helps me learn the old designs a bit better. I can pick out the mid-'80s and on quite easily, but many 1970s sets confuse me. Is this Arenado supposed to be based on 1973, 1976, or 1979? '73 and '76 both have a little player outline in the lower corner, but both '76 and '79 have solid-colored bars at the bottom. A quick Google Image search confirms that it's 1976. And all the little pennants in 1974, 1977, and 1980 tend to throw me too.

So Archives is helping educate this collector that came up in the overproduction era, one who had allowance money for packs of 1991 Score and 1993 Fleer, but not for much in the way of vintage.

1995 Stadium Club #618 Larry Walker TA

Another day, another subset from 1995 Stadium Club that I've never seen before. Like the Extreme Corps card that came from Wes, apparently TSC made a Trans Action subset in their High Numbers release that year. News to me. I like the color scheme on this one a bit more than Extreme Corps card.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #483 Ellis Burks

Ellis Burks, a member of the Blake Street Bombers with Larry Walker, gets an action shot on 1994 Upper Deck, breaking a three-card string of Guys Resting Bats On Their Shoulders. I'm guessing this is a spring training shot, as there's an obvious A's fan in the crowd, and the Rockies didn't wear black jerseys in the regular season until many seasons later.

Cards like this make me miss Upper Deck. The sparkly finish on Electric Diamond cards predated Topps' Sparkle parallels by almost two decades. Topps has always been my favorite manufacturer, but it would be really nice to have some competition in the market.

2015 Stadium Club #32 Nolan Arenado

Still, the return of Stadium Club does help ease UD's passing, as the look of pure joy on Arenado's face puts this card head and shoulders above all the pitchers' straining faces we've seen in Topps Base for like five straight years. The only downside is that the same Arenado photo on the back can be found on at least three Topps cards.

2010 Topps Chrome #143 Troy Tulowitzki

I've been known to buy a pack or two of Topps Chrome. Some years are shinier than others, but in my opinion 2010 was the worst for "the curl". Curling on the horizontal axis isn't so terrible, and we're all pretty much used to it by now, but on the vertical axis it gets kind of weird, and many of the cards from a blaster I once bought of this are pretty much curled from the lower left to the upper right. Even now, I can glance over at my rows of binders and know exactly where my 2010 Topps Chrome cards are, since they don't lay flat and cause the pages to bulge.

2007 Upper Deck Spectrum #62 Todd Helton

They just keep getting shinier from here on out. This is from Upper Deck Spectrum, and it's one heck of a base card. Shiny silver with a hint of rainbow, vertical black borders (sort of like the 2007 UD base set), and a reflective Tron-like surface on the bottom. I'll have to find a way to squeeze this into my 2007 Upper Deck binder pages, which are already filled with what feels like a dozen and a half sets they made that year.

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition #17 Charlie Blackmon

Pre-beard Charlie Blackmon gets a card in the shiniest Donruss Elite set I can recall. I'm more familiar with their recent sets, and they used a lot more red in those. I can't quite place his uniform though. None of the Rockies' minor league clubs have cities or names that could match "JACK".

Maybe it means Jackpot, since starting in outfield for the Rockies was pretty close to my childhood idea of winning the lottery.

That, or owning my own jet airplane.

2013 Finest #12 Carlos Gonzalez

Though CarGo's road uniform doesn't look quite as striking as Tulo's purple pinstripes, 2013 Finest fits well with the other shiny silver cards Mark sent my way. The hexagonal theme of 2003 Finest remains one of my top three favorite Finest designs (along with that gorgeous green of 1994). The rows of circles on this design look a little bit like one of those mesh park benches, or a Connect Four game board.

2008 SPx #30 Matt Holliday

Die-cut cards seem more appealing every time I run across one, and Upper Deck did a stellar job with this one. The shading seen in each corner really makes this look like it's a two-layer card. Of course, there's a nice rainbow finish and cute little baseballs in each corner, but I am super impressed with this card. Every time I touch the corner I expect to feel another edge, although the visual effect isn't quite as pronounced on the back due to the lack of shininess.

My scanner never feels the same way about die-cuts, as it has enough trouble auto-cropping a perfect rectangle. But I'll appreciate this one for a long time to come.

Finally, I'll be doing a mail run in the next day or two, to recipients both on and off the #Supertraders list. Check the below list for your ZIP/Postal code!

07044
02766
13601
14222
20904
27314
28590
29730
29841
45067
55406
60706
70062
78125
79083
87499
N2H 5M5

Thanks for reading!

The Trading Post #55: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

Shipments from my fellow #Supertraders are continuing to roll in, many from traders I've never swapped with before. Second to arrive after Wes' was a small stack all the way from Canada. Sportscards From the Dollar Store opened a box of 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes, although I was pretty much the only one to end up with a hit. He kept a Met for himself, but the other two hits were of the Indians and the World Champion Royals. We're still hoping to fill those two slots, plus the Marlins.

2013 Hometown Heroes #240 Joe Girardi

Of course, it's not all about hits. A half dozen base cards came along with it, This Girardi card doesn't mention anything about his managerial career with the Yankees, or rather with "New York (A)". This is a logoless set, after all. It does mention his career home runs and that close to half of them came in Denver. I remember one he hit to straightaway center at Mile High Stadium one Friday night, and the next day we had a family outing to the Rockies merchandise store in Boulder to get his and Eric Young's autographs. Girardi even said a few words on the radio with Mark Knudson afterwards.

2013 Hometown Heroes #248 Vinny Castilla

Vinny Castilla often hit more home runs in a season than Girardi did his whole career. He looks more than ready to hit one on this card  And regardless of the lack of an MLB logo on his helmet, it's not truly a logoless card. I can spot Franklin, Rawlings, Russell, and Oakley, not to mention the Hometown heroes logo.

2013 Hometown Heroes #179 Carlos Gonzalez

This is definitely a retro set in the style of Topps Heritage or Fleer Tradition. The solid yellow background reminds me quite a bit of 1958 Topps, and the team in the yellow pennant of 1965 Topps. The little red stars I can't quite place. Maybe an early Fleer set? Anyway, the Rockies' modern purple looks kind of out of place on this card. A Cardinal would look a lot better. And adding to the logo count, there's a nice Nike Swoosh on the batting glove.

2013 Hometown Heroes #152 Andres Galarraga

Like CarGo, Andres Galarraga hails from Venezuela. Between those two and others like Yorvit Torrealba and Jonathan Herrera, South Americans have hit a significant percentage of Rockies' home runs. The Big Cat finished just one short of 400 for his career.

Also, we can add Wilson to the running list of sporting goods manufacturers. Clearly they're not as protective of their intellectual property as MLB.

2013 Hometown Heroes #205 Troy Tulowitzki

Of course, Tulo's future home runs will count for Toronto's stats. The Blue Jays will be visiting Denver in late June, and I am going to try to make it to at least one of those. It will be interesting to see how the fans react to his return. Though he hasn't had good things to say about Rockies' management and ownership since the trade, neither have many of the fans. So we're probably pretty much on the same page. At the very least, it will be nice to hear the "Tulo" chant echo off the right field stands once more.

2013 Hometown Heroes #219 Todd Helton

Helton managed to stay in Denver his whole career, earning the honor of having his uniform number of 17 retired a couple seasons ago. We'll see what his Hall of Fame chances are like in a couple years. Perhaps he'll be the first Rockie in Cooperstown.

On the logo front, Helton has Mizuno batting gloves. Just how many batting glove manufacturers are there, anyway? Seems like a surprisingly fragmented industry.

So just what was the hit I alluded to back in the beginning of this post?

2013 Hometown Heroes Hometown Signatures #HSVC Vinny Castilla (AU)

Vinny Castilla makes his second appearance on this post, and this one has a tiny bit of stadium background in that circle, a bit of an homage to 1959 Topps. And oh yeah, his autograph, complete with big circles over the "i"s. They used the same photo on the back, but this hit has a more pleasing color combination than the base cards.

I do have to hand it to this SuperTraders group. I don't usually go after Panini brands, but being a member of this group, and after 55 trades since 2014, I've been exposed to plenty of cards and even brands I didn't really know about. And they're rolling in faster than I can write them up, so watch this space!

The Trading Post #47: Waiting 'til Next Year

Spoiler alert: there are no pitchers in this post.

2003 Topps #97 Todd Zeile

There are, however, plenty of hitters. Like this great horizontal shot of Todd Zeile, a journeyman third baseman who holds the dubious distinction of having played in the most games without ever being selected for an All-Star team. He was off the Rockies by the time this 2003 card was printed, but the Rockies purple works pretty well with the blue borders of Topps 2003, probably my favorite Topps base set of the years I wasn't collecting.

Zeile's was one of the cards I got in trade from Tom at Waiting 'til Next Year. He's one of several bloggers that I've traded with for the first time in the last couple months. It took me a while, but I finally got a return package shipped out Monday.

2004 Bazooka Red Chunks #166 Jay Payton

Jay Payton stealing second leads off a trio of red-bordered cards, this one a surprisingly thick parallel from 2004 Bazooka. Like Zeile, Payton was no longer a Rockie by the time this card was released (they always seem a year behind, don't they?), but that doesn't detract from the awesomeness of this action shot. It seems more like a TV screen capture than most other cards.

And he's not a pitcher. Which I bring up because the Rockies signed a few Relief Pitchers I Have Actually Heard Of, getting Chad Qualls and Jason Motte. You may not have heard of them, but this is big news for the Rockies bullpen. Qualls, incidentally, was on his second stint as an Astro, a team I thought he'd been on all this time. Turns out he's been bouncing all over the league for years.

2006 Topps Turkey Red Red #553 Kazuo Matsui

In fact, the Rockies and Astros have done a fair bit of dealing over the years, as Kaz Matsui went there following the Rockies' World Series appearance in 2007. More recently, Jordan Lyles and Dexter Fowler were dealt between Denver and Houston. But (unrelated) I'm still not really used to the Astros being in the American League, although the 2015 Postseason helped me out quite a bit on that.

Like that Bazooka card, this Turkey Red insert is a red parallel (Turkey Red squared?), but this has that odd faux-vintage textured look, almost like a piece of leather. The back is slightly off-white, and the back uses that 19th-century spelling of "Base Ball" more than once. It's an odd set, and Turkey Red Red reminds me of saying PIN Number or ATM Machine.

2008 Topps Opening Day #35 Garrett Atkins

And this one is from when Opening Day took better efforts to differentiate itself from the Topps base set. All the Opening Day base cards were red that year, and featured lots of gold foil. I've found that they chip pretty easily, but this one seems to be in pretty good shape, even if that Topps logo is intruding on the photo area, a common gripe about the 2008 design.

2015 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP12 Emerson Jimenez

That's it for the red cards, so up next is a nice shiny Bowman card of a prospect I've never heard of.  He's still a single-A guy, so it'll be quite some time before we see him in the Majors. But you heard it on Bowman first.

2009 Bowman Prospects #BP58 Wilin Rosario

Every so often, though, a Bowman Prospect stays in the Majors. Like Emerson Jimenez, Rosario hails from the Dominican Republic, a real gold mine of baseball stars. And Rosario has one of the most legible signatures I can recall on one of these cards with a facsimile autograph. He'll be starting his sixth year as a Rockie in 2016, so he's got quite a bit of seniority already.

2013 Finest #35 Troy Tulowitzki

I'm pretty sure I've seen some variety of this card before (probably the refractor), but it wasn't until now that I noticed the tiny baseball on Tulo's belt. I can't quite tell what it is, a patch or possibly a sticker. Maybe you get a little shiny baseball sticker on your belt after each home run, sort of like an Axis flag you'd find on a P-51 Mustang.

2015 Donruss #82 Corey Dickerson

With Donruss, the logo-less Panini brand, we don't get anywhere that level of detail. Because the Rockies have fairly unique colors, it's not hard to spot them without the "CR" on hats or helmets. I imagine this would be much tougher with one of the red or blue teams, of which there are plenty. Maybe being a Rockies fan means I tend not to find issue with Panini sets that most others despise, like Prizm (or even Donruss, for that matter).

2007 Topps Wal-Mart #WM38 Matt Holliday

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that Matt Holliday cards don't seem to be that common. Tom sent over a couple, including this Topps 205 card (actually part of a Wal-Mart exclusive insert set), whose frame looks an awful lot like this year's Gypsy Queen. Holliday's baby-faced appearance originally made me think this was more like 2004-2005, but it is from the same year that Holliday won NLCS MVP honors, just a couple weeks after misjudging a fly ball in Game 163 against the Padres to send it to extras, then scoring the winning run in that same game.

2005 Topps Opening Day #136 Matt Holliday

Though he was (and remains) a fairly subpar outfielder, his talent at the plate can't be denied. His baserunning is known to be...iffy, but I'd say he's safe at second in Wrigley on this Opening Day card. The blue foil at the top looks striking, but the same color gets lost in the black bar at the bottom, at least in person. Amazingly, the scan picks it up better.

2000 Topps #53 Dante Bichette

Wrigley Field comes across even better in this Dante Bichette card from 2000 Topps. Tom threw in a good number of 2000 Topps, which might even be the whole team set. It was a small set that year.

We've seen Bichette near the ivy before, but this time it looks more like spring than autumn. At least he doesn't need long sleeves. And a couple of Wrigley Field cards from one of the bigger Cubs fans in the cardsphere makes for an extra-appropriate conclusion to his trade post.

And not one pitcher to be found.

The Trading Post #46: Cardboard Clubhouse

Besides my first packs of 1987 Topps and 1990 Fleer, the 1993 Rockies Team Stadium Club set is one of the longest-tenured pieces of my collection. It's a 30-card team set, with color coding and a large gold foil baseball in the upper right. Ten or so teams got this treatment, including the expansion Rockies and Marlins, along with the Rangers, Yankees, Angels, and a few others.

As you might imagine, most of these cards are in fairly rough shape. Nothing stays pristine in the hands of a nine-year old for long. Even worse, the second law of thermodynamics seems to have dictated that my 30-card set didn't stay whole. Whether it got traded, cast off as a duplicate, or fell into a black hole, Jeff Parrett's card #9 didn't survive into my adulthood, leaving me with a slightly incomplete set of one of my earliest card products.

1993 Rockies Team Stadium Club #9 Jeff Parrett

That is, until Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse came to the rescue, knocking off another Eight Men Out need. Fellow bloggers, if you don't have a short wantlist like that, make one.

Parrett didn't even play for the Rockies that long, mostly appearing in relief during their inaugural 1993 season. But he still appeared in this fairly scarce set, and I'm glad that I got the chance to right that wrong.

1993 Rockies Team Stadium Club #26 Steve Reed

Even better, Adam just went ahead and included the whole darn team set for good measure. I saw this team set at the antique mall a couple months ago, but it was priced at over $6 per 9-pocket page. I knew I needed that Parrett card, but didn't want to spend that much to get it. Much better to rely on this community, and Adam got to add to his collection, too.

Steve Reed was of my favorite pitchers in the early days of the Rockies. His right-handed submarine delivery was fascinating to watch, and since I was so new to baseball then, I probably assumed that every team had a submariner.

His name came up in a statistic I heard recently. Apparently, he's in the top-ten list of career wins as a Rockie despite never having started a game in his entire MLB career. That means two things. One, the Rockies were completely awesome at come-from-behind wins in their early years. And two, the fact that only nine other guys have surpassed a late-inning reliever with 33 Rockies wins to his credit means they have always had absolutely terrible pitching.

2015 Topps Archives #238 Troy Tulowitzki

But we have had good shortstops. At least, we used to.

Tulo's smiling face appears on this resurrection of the 1983 Topps design as part of this year's Archives set. Though it's not a fan favorite, Archives is growing on me more and more. The semi-glossy finish they use front and back makes these cards a cinch to pick out by feel alone, which I think is a great idea for this type of set. There are way too many reprints out there (like Cards Your Mom Threw Out) that can easily be mistaken for the real thing, especially if you're only glancing at the front. I especially enjoy seeing the treatment Topps gives to expansion teams on these old designs. Sometimes they work uncannily well.

2013 Topps Archives #155 Wilin Rosario

Like this Wilin Rosario card from 2013 Archives. That's based on 1990 Topps, of course, probably my least favorite Topps base issue of the overproduction era. The random colors and tiny dots everywhere give it a jarring look against some pretty boring photography. But put a modern Rockie on that purple background that didn't match any MLB team at the time, and suddenly it looks completely perfect. It's a shame the Rockies and Marlins weren't around back then; they could have made that set make a lot more sense.

2013 Topps Archives #155 Wilin Rosario (Reverse)

But maybe that mustard-colored back and art-deco font was just too much to overcome.

2015 Diamond Kings #136 Troy Tulowitzki

Another recent set with a pretty unique feel is 2015 Diamond Kings. Nachos Grande opened a box of this for a group break earlier this year, and my girlfriend helped me realize that these are meant to feel like a playing card. This Tulowitzki, along with the Charlie Blackmon I got in the group break, means I got both Rockies that appeared in the 200-card base set. Not great representation there, and that's part of the reason why I struck out a bit on his most recent group break. But that had a silver lining, which you'll see in an upcoming post.

2015 Topps Rainbow Foil #34 Charlie Blackmon

Speaking of Charlie Blackmon, Adam also sent this Rainbow Foil parallel from 2015 Topps. I've seen one or two others by now, and while it's no 2013 Topps Emerald, it's a nice-looking card. The background becomes rather muted in this finish, which blends in well with the stucco-like pattern of the upper border.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #SP-83 Matt Holliday

I haven't seen many Matt Holliday cards recently. He hasn't been a Rockie in many years, and he's done so well as a Cardinal that his time on the Rockies flies under the radar a bit. So I was glad to see this Allen & Ginter card in the package, part of a huge 100-card insert set. Believe it or not, there's a second insert set in A&G this year that's just as large. The base set remains at 350 cards, but Topps' flagship product grew to 350 cards per series this year. Clearly, the card industry isn't exempt from inflation.

2014 Topps Pink #275 Nolan Arenado /50

Last, here is a pretty special colored parallel from 2014 Topps. It's no secret that Nolan Arenado is my favorite current Rockie, and while I'm not wild about the pink border, the serial number is a pleasing 50/50. There are actually quite a few serial numbered cards in my collection, but none other comes to mind with the final number in the print run. It's a satisfying little detail, easily offsetting the clashing colors found on the front.

This was a surprisingly awesome trade package! Adam and I discussed the Parrett card via email, and other than "maybe a few Rockies extras", I wasn't expecting anything like this! Big thanks to Cardboard Clubhouse for keeping the trading ball rolling.