The Trading Post #136: The Lost Collector

I've been writing some marathon posts lately. It's rare for me to wind up under 1,500 words. By comparison, this two-card post will be more of a small morsel, an amuse-bouche, if you want to be fancy about it.

The Lost Collector, who has appeared multiple times in The Trading Post series, thought of me when he pulled a few Topps Update cards from 2019. I haven't built a pie chart of the various collectors who have appeared in The Trading Post over the years, but The Lost Collector would certainly have a sizeable wedge. This time, he found some Rockies parallels from the quasi-Series 3 that Topps releases annually.

2019 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow #US42 David Dahl AS

One look at these and it should be plainly obvious that these aren't the base Topps Update cards. They have the look of Gold parallels, but they're not those either. What I was sent were a pair of Yellow parallels, exclusive to Walgreens. Yellow certainly isn't one of their corporate colors, but Target already has the red parallel color locked up, and Toys R Us seems to have taken the purple color into bankruptcy with them, so yellow it is. As far as how well the color itself shows up, I'd say 2019 does a much better job than 2018 did.

The All-Star Game is always one of the primary features of any Topps Update set, and both these cards are from the 2019 Midsummer Classic, held this year in Cleveland. With the pitchers duels these games have become, crossing the plate is a real accomplishment, as is getting on base in the first place. And David Dahl did just that, singling in the 5th inning and scoring thanks to an RBI single from Pete Alonso, who had just won the Home Run Derby the night before, and was recently named the NL Rookie of the Year.

Dahl is certainly wearing a lot of numbers on his uniform in this photo. There's obviously his uniform number, #26, the number previously worn by Ellis Burks and Jeff Francis. On his right, he has the number 45, a memorial for Tyler Skaggs, the Angels pitcher who died tragically just over a week before the All-Star Game. On Dahl's right sleeve, we can see the MLB 150 logo worn league-wide this year, as well as a "1" inside a five-pointed star. which represents Dahl's first All-Star selection. MLB has been adding service stars to All-Star Game uniforms for a few years now, and I think they're a nice touch.

2019 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow #US44 Trevor Story AS

Incrementing the Rockies uniform number by one, we come to #27, Trevor Story. We're facing him at a different angle here, so we can't see the "2" inside his service star patch. On the other hand (pun intended), there is a slight glimpse of the All-Star Game logo itself, which for 2019 was a little baseball-stitched electric guitar, a nod to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which sits just several blocks beyond Progressive Field's left field.

Both these card backs describe why each of these players warranted an All-Star selection, as well as their in-game performances. Trevor Story went 0-1 while facing Liam Hendriks, one batter before his buddy Charlie Blackmon would hit a home run. Yes, Rockies had two of the three runs scored by the National League that day, which was still not enough to beat the American League.

Story's other "All-Star Game Creds" included his fourth NL Player of the Week award, a seven-RBI game against the Blue Jays in late May, and his 100th career home run a week before that, the fastest-ever shortstop to reach that mark. His two All-Star selections go into the same trophy case as his two Silver Slugger awards, though he's yet to win a Gold Glove.

If he keeps that kind of performance up, he'll need a bigger trophy case, and can expect to appear in many more Topps Update sets yet to come.

I'm a lot more confident in that than what the colored parallel situation will be next year.

Thanks to The Lost Collector for adding a little extra color to my 2019 binder!

The Trading Post #75: The Lost Collector

Even though the #SuperTraders group seems to be winding down a bit, I'm still seeing a few trades pop up in my mailbox. This Labor Day weekend gave me a chance to finally sort the 5,000-count box that these 75 trades (and more) have been going into for the past couple years. Feels great to have that organized and ready to put into binders. I'm sure more are on the way, as I'm pretty sure Night Owl just sent me something, based on USPS tracking data. By the way, if you haven't registered your address with My USPS, which sends you an email whenever you have a package on its way to your address, it's a great little service. UPS and FedEx have something similar.

Anyway, the latest arrival was from The Lost Collector, the Yankees representative in our little group.

2016 Topps Chrome Refractors #9 Nolan Arenado

This marks the third time he's sent me cards, and he wasted no time in getting to the good stuff. The rookies have been the Story this year (pun intended) in Denver, with Trevor Story, Jeff Hoffman, David Dahl, and others making an impact already. Stephen Cardullo, who at one time was the longest of long shots to make the Majors has already hit two home runs, and Raimel Tapia, another young Rockies prospect, got his first big-league hit on Friday night. Meanwhile, Nolan Arenado has been quietly doing his thing, brilliantly playing third base and going stroke-for-stroke in the NL home run race with Kris Bryant, a fellow player covering the hot corner.

This is my first look at 2016 Chrome, and right away one of the first things I noticed is the "refractor" label on the back. 2016 is an on-year for that helpful labeling, and even though it still has that great rainbow appearance under the right light, I'm not forced to check it to know what I have.

There's also a bit of extra design in the lower left area, which is just plain white in the base set. There are a bunch of little bars and hexagonal grids and dots, plus "2016 Topps" running vertically, almost like the security strip in a banknote. It's a bit like the Blue parallels in Opening Day. The curl is a little bit uneven, but it's a great-looking card! It could pass for a Finest card if it didn't reuse the design from Topps Base.

2012 Topps Update #US259A Carlos Gonzalez

If it's from an All-Star game, it's probably from Topps Update. Carlos Gonzalez does look like a Royal here, but rest assured, he's still a Rockie. The Kansas City Royals hosted the All-Star Game in 2012, and Gonzalez made his first of two appearances in the Home Run Derby that year. He didn't progress past the first round, hitting only four out of Kaufman Stadium. He did quite a bit better this year, hitting a beer-destroying 12, but still didn't make it past the first round.

2012 Topps Opening Day Fantasy Squad #FS-20 Carlos Gonzalez

Still, anyone good enough to appear in the Home Run Derby is definitely someone to target in a fantasy baseball draft. This insert set from 2012 Opening Day (of course) has CarGo as one of 30 cards, and even offers a rare bit of foil. The surfboard design in the lower left matches the base design of that year, just a bit smaller. The surfboard on his Update card is about as big as they come, as the "National League" text under his name forced it to grow.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US291 Eddie Butler

Knowing what we know about Rockies pitching, putting a "Future Stars" label on a Rockies pitcher card is a risky proposition. Topps did it anyway, but Eddie Butler lost his roster spot over the summer and has been toiling away for Triple-A Albuquerque since then. He might get called back up now that rosters have expanded for September, but he has a long way to go before he lives up to that label.

This is Butler's Chrome parallel from 2015 Update, which means it has that extra-sparkly background that was all the rage last fall. Fuji sent me one too, and I'm glad my trading buddies are looking out for me. It's almost a cross between glitter and pointillism, without the risk of glitter getting all over everything.

2016 Topps Bunt Platinum #140 DJ LeMahieu /99

DJ LeMahieu is the NL batting average leader, just ahead of Daniel Murphy. Jose Altuve is a few points ahead, but the Astros switched leagues a few seasons ago, possibly clearing the way for a Rockie to win yet another batting title. His average isn't quite as good as what this serial number would suggest, but it's clear that the Rockies came out ahead in their 2011 trade with the Cubs.

I didn't pull one this rare from my Bunt pack at Target, nor any Rockie for that matter. The Lost Collector gave me five base cards plus this parallel, and DJ's defensive skills are apparent, as he's intently watching the ball arrive into his glove, and hoping it doesn't collide with that pesky Bunt logo.

1997 Collector's Choice #102 John Vander Wal

Pinch hitter extraordinaire John Vander Wal did so well at the plate in 1996 that Upper Deck did most of the write-up on the back of this 1997 Collector's Choice card about his record-setting performance. He still holds the Major League record for most pinch-hit, um, hits in a season, with 28 in 1996. Four of those were home runs, including a walkoff shot on May 18th as noted on the card (off of Dennis Eckersley), and a go-ahead homer on June 30th, one of the greatest games in Rockies history. He only started about 20 games that year, so this photo of him on the basepaths (probably about to round third) is likely from one of his many pinch-hit appearances.

1997 Leaf #385 Larry Walker GM

Larry Walker made his claim to fame on a more regular basis, and he darn near won the Triple Crown the year this card was printed. It's shinier than it looks in the scan. Copper foil was all the rage in 1997, as was Walker himself. He led the league in home runs, was only a few behind teammate Andres Galarraga in RBIs, and was edged out on batting average by the great Tony Gwynn. Still, his performance in '97 (the same year as this photo, judging by that Jackie Robinson patch) earned him the NL MVP award, so far the only time a Rockie has won it.

1998 SkyBox Dugout Axcess #120 Todd Helton

Todd Helton was just breaking into the big leagues at that point, and he had a long way to go before becoming a legendary figure in Denver sports history. He was still a green rookie in 1998, earning a spot in this "Little Dawgs" subset of Skybox Dugout Axcess. All those deliberate misspellings are strange, but it's explained on the back of this card. According to Barry Larkin, who has a tiny cameo on the back, Larkin "simply refers to the players he doesn't recognize [in Spring Training] as 'Little Dawgs."'

Makes sense. But spelling "Axcess" with an X just to use two crossed bats in the logo is stretching it. I've never seen this card before. And I doubt I could have even imagined it.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs #79 Neifi Perez /3900

Our final traded card of today, a Donruss autograph card of Neifi Perez, came in the same penny sleeve as that LeMahieu card, which I missed the first time. I always like when the special cards are separated somehow in the package, whether with a handwritten note, a penny sleeve, or put in the stack backwards and/or upside-down (one of my favorite strategies), and this Perez card was clearly set apart. The red background is very striking, and a color not often seen so boldly on a Rockies card.

Beckett claims this is card #79, but I can't find a card number anywhere. There's also supposedly a serial-numbered print run of 3,900, and while the print run may be accurate, there is definitely no serial number here.

Believe it or not, I actually had a card from this set already. Andy Ashby signed one of these, and it's been in my collection for a dozen years at least. I'm pretty sure I got it from one of my first visits to Christian, my primary local card dealer.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs #8 Andy Ashby /3900

But sure enough, there's no card number on Ashby's card either, nor a serial number. I guess there's a master reference checklist somewhere, and it sort of makes sense when you think about it. This is not a sticker autograph, it's on-card. So it earns a point in that department. But as autograph issues often fall through in production, it's hard for a card company to put together a numbered checklist when it's so far beyond their control. That's why Topps does that alphabet soup on their relic and autograph card numbers.

If I had to take something like DSS-NP over no card number at all, I'd pick the alphabet soup every time. I bet most of us would.

So maybe we stop griping about letter-only card numbers now, yes?

The Trading Post #28: The Lost Collector

I don't get a whole lot of mail, and I'm fine with that. I check the mail every day, and when there is actually something there, more often than not it's important. Like a Netflix disc. Or my renewed Colorado Driver's License. Or maybe a birthday card. And with increasing frequency, baseball cards!

The lone item in my mailbox today was a Plain White Envelope (PWE) from a previous trading partner, The Lost Collector. We did a fairly big trade shortly before Christmas, but he found two more that missed the first shipment.

2008 Topps Moments and Milestones Black #125-38 Matt Holliday /25

I've written about the insanity that is Topps Moments & Milestones before. They pick a player and a season or career stat, in this case Matt Holliday's 216 hits in 2007, and print a separate card for each of those hits. This one commemorates his 38th hit, as we can tell by the numeral "38" on the front. That's the only thing to distinguish it from the other 215 varieties.

So let's do the math. 216 base cards for each hit, plus three colored parallels (this one is Black, the most common of the parallels), plus the four printing plates. That means there are 868 varieties of this single card. The 2008 Moments & Milestones base set comes in even bigger than the 2007 release at a whopping 12,000+ cards, and that's before you factor in the colored parallels.

Frankly, I think Topps seriously dropped the ball on this concept. I would much prefer if they had done something more along the lines of Upper Deck's Documentary product, or even the Mickey Mantle home run cards, one for each of the Mick's 536 career dingers.

2006 Topps Chrome Mantle Home Run History Blue Refractors #MHRC530 Mickey Mantle /200

What makes this set work is that we get specifics about his 530th home run, not just the numeral 530.

2006 Topps Chrome Mantle Home Run History Blue Refractors #MHRC530 Mickey Mantle /200 (Reverse)

Flip it over and we get all sorts of goodies about #530. The date, the inning, the opposing team and pitcher, the number of men on base, even on which side of the plate the legendary switch-hitter was slugging from at the time. Interestingly, #531 happened on the same day in 1968, and was hit off the same pitcher.

Topps made a similar 73-card set for Barry Bonds in 2002, and that one even gave detail about its distance and direction.

2002 Topps #365 Barry Bonds HR 73 (Reverse)

I like cards that can be dated based on the photograph or a caption. If Moments & Milestones gave us detail like the Mantle or Bonds sets, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'd be out hunting for cards whose "moments" occurred with me in attendance.

Anyway, I do like the Holliday card, and the Black parallel that The Lost Collector sent works well with the Rockies' colors. I'll just let this card appeal to my affinity for serial numbers and the Rockies, and try to suppress the set builder in me.

A question for player collectors: would you want every base card of your chosen player from Moments & Milestones? Or would any one of them suffice?

I mentioned there were two cards in this PWE, and this was intended to be the main attraction, according to the handwritten note.

1998 Ultra Rocket to Stardom #10 Todd Helton

The late 1990s were a crazy time, indeed. Without a doubt, this Ultra insert (notice the absence of the Fleer name) is the most textured card I own. Each one of those potentially lethal "icicle shards" is a raised surface. Both the lettering and Helton's outline are raised as well, but the strangest part are the slanted streaks in the jersey area. They make him look sort of ghost-like. There's a lot going on here.

Not only that, but this card is die-cut. The edges are rounded, which makes the overall shape look something like a comic strip thought bubble. I think this is a good idea in a die-cut card, since those rounded edges are much less likely to get dinged than some of Topps' recent designs.

For all its over-the-top design features, the paragraph on the back actually speaks pretty intelligently about Helton's upcoming career. It was hoped that Helton would replace Andres Galarraga at first base, bringing a strong bat to the lineup. After his long career as a Rockie, Helton also ended up being a bit of an upgrade defensively, winning three Gold Gloves to Galarraga's two.

These are some of the more unusual cards I've received via trade, and though they aren't setting any design benchmarks, they certainly inspired plenty of commentary for a two-card PWE.

The Trading Post #14: The Lost Collector

Shortly before Christmas (yes, I am a little behind on trade posts), a package arrived from The Lost Collector who specializes in Yankees. Thanks to my dad's boyhood home of pre-Mets Queens, I've been instilled with an affinity for the Yankees, and I was able to send some good stuff to The Lost Collector.

The trade package I got in return had gems like these:

2004 Topps Opening Day #130 Larry Walker

Much discussion has occurred about the conspicuous (and often welcome) absence of foil in Topps Opening Day. These days, it's the primary differentiator between it and the Topps base set, aside from that little red, white, and blue banner that appears on each card, as well as some pretty great inserts. As you can (somewhat) clearly see in the above, this was not always the case. Remember 2000 Opening Day with its freakishly huge silver seal?

2000 Topps Opening Day #85 Chipper Jones

In addition to the use of foil, many not-that-long-ago releases of Opening Day had different-colored borders, such as a red border in 2008, and a simple white border in 2007 that I think looks way better than the black-bordered and relatively unloved 2007 base set.

2007 Topps Opening Day #131 Orlando Cabrera

Another card from 2004 that The Lost Collector included is this copper-foil Upper Deck card (a metallic finish that UD seemed to love):

2004 UD Diamond All-Star #30 Preston Wilson

I don't recall having seen this set before it came via this trade, but I've already run across a few others like it in other trade packages I received shortly after this one.

Preston's swing has quite the follow-through, doesn't it?

Those were some of the newer cards he sent over, though there was a 2005 Opening Day (with blue foil) and a card from 2014 Update. There was a good bit of 1990s shininess as well.

1996 Metal Universe #158 Bill Swift

I'm not sure I really get what this set is all about. BaseballCardPedia says it's supposed to blend in comic book elements. Regardless, it definitely is...different. Those chains are unique to Swift's card; each of the 249 other cards had their own design elements.

1996 Fleer Tiffany # 373 Bruce Ruffin

This card from 1996 Fleer isn't particularly shiny by itself. It only gains a relative shininess when you remember that 1996 and 1997 Fleer had a matte finish, which really stood out in the UV-coated 1990s. It's from the "Tiffany" parallel set, which came one-per-pack. Strangely, I have about as many Tiffany cards as standard base cards from this set. That year, Fleer also made 20-card Team Sets for nine teams including the Rockies. They had a glossy coating but lacked the refractor finish on the foil.

Couldn't hurt to show the matte base card of recent Hall of Fame inductee Craig Biggio, who holds the MLB record for most hit-by-pitches, surpassing Don Baylor shortly before his retirement.

1996 Fleer #402 Craig Biggio

Next, a little more mid-90s goodness from one of my favorite parallel sets, Upper Deck Collector's Choice Silver Signature.

1995 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #443 Walt Weiss

That 125th Anniversary patch keeps showing up! There are many horizontal cards to be found in Collector's Choice, but the orientation of the signature is a little strange, especially since all the other elements are rotated correctly, even the brand logo.

On the earliest Rockies and Marlins cards, it's common to find a player listed as a Rockie but shown in a previous uniform, like submariner Steve Reed as a Giant.

1993 Fleer #414 Steve Reed (RC)

1993 Topps Series 2 saw some actual Rockies uniforms, but we had to wait for 1993 Fleer Final Edition to see a true Rockie in this design, one of the first that I collected.

1993 Fleer Final Edition #F-40 Steve Reed

Judging by the backgrounds, there were quite a few more fans watching Reed as a Rockie than as a Giant.

1993 Triple Play #154 Dante Bichette

In addition to the unfamiliar Brewers uniform, Dante Bichette's card from 1993 Triple Play even has a very early Rockies logo that was changed before they ever played their first game. The current logo differs in that the baseball is shown to travel farther, the arch is black instead of silver, and the lettering on the arch is silver instead of purple.

1998 Fleer Ultra #145 Dante Bichette

There, that's more like it, although it does look mighty cold out there at Wrigley. According to Baseball Reference, the Rockies made a two-game stop in Chicago in mid-April 1997. This photograph is most likely from that short series.

On the topic of well-attended stadiums, this last card shows Mile High Stadium packed to the gills with Rockies fans, where they played in 1993 and 1994 while Coors Field was under construction.

1994 Score #650 Checklist / Colorado Rockies

This is probably from the home opener on April 9th, 1993, when the Rockies packed 80,000+ fans into a stadium with a capacity of 76,000. Standing room only, anyone? The Rockies attracted almost 4.5 million fans that year, myself included (twice), a record that still stands today. The Rockies themselves might have broken their own record in 1994 if the infamous strike hadn't occurred.

As usual, I had trouble narrowing this down to just a few cards, made more difficult by the few non-Rockies cards that snuck in here for illustrative purposes. Thanks for reading as I continue to catch up on trade posts from many new trading partners!