The Trading Post #17: The Junior Junkie

Continuing with more of "The Trading Post" theme, the third of three trade packages that arrived on Christmas Eve was from The Junior Junkie, complete with little Mariners logos hand-drawn on the box. I've already covered the first two, from The Angels, In Order, and Nomo's Sushi Platter.

Remember how I said that my girlfriend and I opened all three on Christmas Eve? Well, I didn't quite give you the whole story on that.

1996 Collector's Choice #130 Bret Saberhagen

My girlfriend had a childhood friend who had a "thing" for Bret Saberhagen. Right around the same time that the baseball card bubble was at its highest, she started buying packs here and there to see if she could pull a Saberhagen card for her friend. She didn't ever find one, and eventually stopped looking that carefully. Unopened packs started to end up in the back of the proverbial shoebox, long forgotten.

Forgotten, that is, until stocking-stuffer season rolled around. She asked her mother if any of those old cards were still tucked away. Sure enough, her mother found six unopened packs (1991 Score, 1990 Fleer, 1989 Donruss, etc...) and a few other loose cards, all of which ended up in my stocking on Christmas morning.

I wouldn't be able to leave packs unopened that long any more than I could not finish my chips with a lunch sandwich.

Anyway, on Christmas Day, the morning after a few Saberhagen cards fell out of The Junior Junkie's trade package like the one above, take a look at what I finally liberated from the second pack I opened:

1990 Fleer #116 Bret Saberhagen

After all those years.

Of course, now they're just starting to show up everywhere.

1995 Collector's Choice #441 Mike Kingery

Just like the 125th Anniversary patch, which I've pointed out in numerous recent posts. Here it is on center fielder Mike Kingery diving back to first base.

I wonder if these commemorative patches are starting to turn into a mini-collection. This next card from Ellis Burks caught my eye because of one.

1996 Fleer Tiffany #361 Ellis Burks

That's the Rockies 1995 patch, commemorating the opening of Coors Field. The arch part of the logo replaces the "Colorado" lettering with green-colored girders matching the stadium's architecture. Saberhagen is wearing one too, at the top of this post.

There was plenty of great photography to be found, and it wasn't just in Coors Field.

2008 Topps #607 Ryan Spilborghs

Outfielder Ryan Spilborghs did a good job in the Rockies outfield, and he's now a commentator for the team on the Root Sports cable channel. I even snapped a picture of him when the Cubs were in town in 2007. But this one is from Turner Field in Atlanta. That #44 banner on the outfield wall (right-center, to be specific) is of the Home Run King, Hank Aaron.

Let's take a look at one more arm patch. It's small in this image, but very important.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition #350 Garrett Atkins

Yes, that's the 2007 World Series patch! Garrett Atkins is shown here facing Red Sox relief pitcher Hideki Okajima in either Game 3 or 4.

I was really hoping to pinpoint the date of this card. Trouble is, Atkins faced Okajima in both games, so I can't be sure. Atkins hit a home run off of Okajima in Game 4, so it's likely that this is that shot. However, I was really hoping that I could point to Game 3, because that's the game I was lucky enough to get a ticket to!

Yes, I've been to 50% of all World Series games that have taken place in Denver. Unfortunately, the Rockies were swept that year, but the appearance itself was pretty special!

2012 Topps Opening Day Fantasy Squad #FS-7 Troy Tulowitzki

Tulowitzki was a participant in the 2007 World Series, but this card is a bit newer. It's an insert card from a brand that does a pretty darn good job with insert sets, Topps Opening Day. There's a nice amount of green on this one, and foil too (only the "Fantasy Squad" lettering), but nothing that distracts from readability. There's even a little bit of the "surfboard" design element that was the major theme of 2012 Topps. In fact, it looks a bit like the McLaren logo, for those of you who follow Formula 1 or supercars.

When you're sent this many Rockies cards, you're sure to get plenty of photos from Coors Field, like this one of my favorite Rockies player, Nolan Arenado:

2013 Bowman Chrome #24 Nolan Arenado (RC)

It's not that shiny for a "Chrome" card, which is a little disappointing, design-wise. It also has a bit of that gravity-defying curl, though nowhere near as bad as 2010 Topps Chrome. Arenado appears with the left-field wall over his shoulder, clearly earning that Gold Glove while covering third base.

Last but not least (last but most?) is my first card from the 2014 Finest set, and it's a beauty.

2014 Finest #30 Carlos Gonzalez

The colors really pop on this design, as do the bright accents on the right. The vertical nameplate isn't my favorite, but the subtle concentric lines around the border give it an interesting frame. And I don't know if it's just me, but I see a lot of this design in the upcoming 2015 Topps base set, which I can't wait to see in person.

I have to thank The Junior Junkie for my first taste of 2014 Finest; as well as the whole small flat-rate box full of Rockies!

And Bret Saberhagen.

The Trading Post #16: Nomo's Sushi Platter

Three trade packages arrived in my mailbox on Christmas Eve. My girlfriend and I had fun opening these up after some family time at my Mom's. The first was from The Angels, In Order, which I posted about this weekend. The second of these was from Spiegel83 at the Dodger blog Nomo's Sushi Platter. Though he hasn't posted in over a year, he's still been active in comments, and clearly in trading, as you'll see below.

Speaking of sushi, I'm a little overdue for some.

But let's get to the cards, starting with the 2003 release of Stadium Club, the final year of consistent annual releases since the brand's inception in 1991. Of course, 2015 will continue a new streak for Stadium Club, and I hope it keeps going for many more years.

2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #94 Larry Walker

This is my third card from the Royal Gold parallel set, printed with gold foil (what else?) on extra-thick card stock. I showed my two others in a previous post, but this is the first vertical card, and as is typical of Stadium Club, it has quite an interesting photo. The ball hasn't even reached Walker's glove yet, but he's already well into the motion of firing the ball back toward the infield, perhaps to gun down a runner at home, something Walker was well-known for.

Here's another Larry Walker card from this package, and it's from the same UD set as the Preston Wilson card that I got from The Lost Collector.

2004 UD Diamond All-Star Silver Honors #29 Larry Walker

This one, however, is a "Silver Honors" parallel, which comes with silver foil rather than copper, as well as a seal on the lower left side of the card. A "Gold Honors" parallel also exists, which is serial numbered to 50. Spiegel83 also included the base cards of Helton and Walker, so I have a decent little stack of Rockies from a set that was unknown to me before these trade packages!

Speaking of Helton, there was a base card of his from 2004 Upper Deck.

2004 Upper Deck #338 Todd Helton

These always reminded me a bit of 1994 Upper Deck; but what I enjoy most about this set is the tiny image of the home stadium in the lower right, this one showing the right-center field stands at Coors Field, where The Rooftop was built during the 2013-2014 off-season. The vertical cards from this set have a photo of the clock tower outside the home plate entrance. The 2010 Upper Deck team card features that same area of the stadium.

Not only did I receive some good shots in and of Coors Field, but there were lots and lots of shiny cards in this shipment as well.

2004 UD Reflections #350 Luis A. Gonzalez (RC)

Upper Deck was churning out products like crazy in the early 2000s; this is from a 390-card 2004 set. That doesn't sound like a lot compared to the typical base set, but for a fancy shiny set, it's huge, although all the relics and autograph cards weren't considered separate.

Please don't get the impression that I'm some super-expert on all these obscure sets. I look this all up on Beckett like the rest of you.

2013 Topps Tribute WBC #12 Jhoulys Chacin

I had to look this one up too, as flashy as this card is. Topps made an unlicensed (!) set through their Topps Tribute brand to commemorate the World Baseball Classic. I always appreciate when a blogger includes a card like this - one has to know the players and the league to know that Chacin in a Venezuela uniform is still appropriate for a Rockies fan.

In the years leading up to Y2K, there was a lot of "millennium" branding being thrown around in virtually all consumer product segments. Candies, baseball cards, computers, you name it.

1997 Stadium Club Millennium #M15 Brian Hunter

I don't remember that Brian Hunter was ever a Rockie; although he did apparently spend part of the 2000 season in Denver. I doubt that Spiegel83 knew that either; I'm sure he threw this one in for the shininess. And not only is it shiny, but the surface of the card is raised, almost like a relief map. You can even tell there are wrinkles in the uniform!

There were a couple other cards with these raised surfaces as well, both Rockies, and both from Upper Deck's Ovation brand.

2002 UD Ovation #60 Todd Helton

2006 UD Ovation #70 Garrett Atkins

On Helton's card, only the Rockies logo in the background is raised. But on Atkins' card, the player, the baseball seam, and the whole card surface above the foil each have different surfaces. If you flip either of these cards over (and the Hunter), you can see the imprint on the back (though with less definition).

It wasn't all Rockies though, nor even former Rockies like that Brian Hunter card. Given that I am only loosely into targeting Rockies for my collection, cards from other teams are also welcome.

Especially when they're serial numbered.

2014 Topps Update Gold #US234 Felix Hernandez /2014

That's a pretty recent card of King Felix, from 2014 Update. I've yet to buy a pack of the stuff, but I've already been sent numerous Rockies from it, as well as other inserts and parallels like you see both above and below.

2014 Topps Update The Future Is Now #FN-JA1 Jose Abreu

Jose Abreu was voted the 2014 AL Rookie of the Year, the fourth Cuban to win the award. The players that appear in "The Future is Now" insert set each have three sequential cards, and I can add this to my collection, along with a couple of Yu Darvish cards I got a few months ago from Alex at Chavez Ravining.

Abreu's name came up in an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show, the one where he visited baseball-crazed Cuba. In it, Bourdain encounters a park full of government-sanctioned "professional baseball fans," many of whom have more expertise on the game and its prospects than us American fans with $130 to burn on an MLB.TV subscription.

This episode originally aired a day before the 2011 All Star Game, and the crowd of baseball experts also predicted that Yoenis Cespedes could easily be an MLB star. Judging by Cespedes' performance in the two most recent Home Run Derbys, it's clear that they know their baseball down in Cuba. Though they've developed quite a unique culture under Castro, I'm pleased to see the United States finally taking steps to developing better diplomatic and economic relations with the island nation.

As quoted in that clip, "baseball transcends politics".

The Trading Post #15: The Angels, In Order

It's everywhere.

Clearly, I have been seeing a lot of 1995 cards recently, because the 125th Anniversary patch that MLB players wore on their right sleeves throughout the strike-shortened season of 1994 keeps popping up.

1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #153 Joe Girardi

A trade package from The Angels, In Order that arrived on Christmas Eve contained the above card, part of five full team bags stuffed with Rockies cards (and a few other teams). The above Fleer Ultra is a "Gold Medallion" card, one of the many gold-themed one-per-pack parallel sets that existed in the early-to-mid 1990s, along with Topps Gold, Score Gold Rush, and Donruss Special Edition.

In fact, this one is really quite similar to my "Wallet Card", a 1994 Topps Gold Joe Girardi. In that card, Girardi also has his mask off but the rest of his catcher's gear on, and it, too, is a gold parallel.

Not that gold foil was all that hard to find circa 1995. In fact, it was pretty much the de facto standard. It was even more everywhere than that patch I keep pointing out.

I wrote in my previous trade post about the matte finish 1996 and 1997 Fleer sets, and as luck would have it, one of these appeared:

1997 Fleer #312 Quinton McCracken

I like this design a little more than the 1996 set I showed yesterday; though the designs are quite similar. I probably prefer the way the last name is printed so large and in outlined letters. That doesn't look like the best bunt that's been executed in baseball history, but it makes for an interesting card nonetheless.

2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve #263 Neifi Perez

Neifi Perez in the on-deck circle is the beneficiary of more gold foil, appearing on a Gold Reserve parallel of 2000 Upper Deck. UD sold this as a main set rather than inserting them into base packs, so you could get all the gold you want without having to deal with the normal base cards, which had copper foil that year.

I am not sure what that "14" is that's scrawled on the side of the batting helmet. At first, I assumed that Perez grabbed Andres Galarraga's helmet, as The Big Cat wore that number for the Rockies, but he was a righty, so the ear flap would be on the wrong side of this helmet. Plus, you can just barely make out the numeral 5 on the back of the helmet, matching Perez's uniform number. Just a notation for the equipment manager, I suppose.

Speaking of Andres Galarraga and his #14 batting helmet (note the ear flap), check out this thick card that, yes, contains gold foil:

1995 Emotion #125 Andres Galarraga

This is my first card from 1995 Emotion, a Fleer/Skybox product. Apparently, there is a large word on every card that in some way describes the player. I browsed through eBay and found all sorts of stuff, like "Pillar", "Captain", "Prepared", "Sprint", "Delivering", and "Cool". Ken Griffey, Jr.'s card is just "Junior". Filling out some Mad Libs with a box of these cards would be hilarious, I'm sure.

Galarraga may indeed have been an "Observing" player, as I'm sure almost all professional athletes are. Come to think of it, wasn't he more on the "Participating" side? I was the fan. I was the observer.

Anyway, this is a pretty "Cool" shot of him "Looking" (sorry, I'll stop) through a pretty high end camera with a monster telephoto lens attached. That's a Canon EOS-1 that shoots film (compared to the digital EOS-1D, which is widely used by today's sports photographers), as digital photography was still in its infancy in 1995. That huge lens has Canon's trademark red ring, signifying that it is a "L" lens, Canon's top-of-the line product.

As an aside, did you ever wonder why those huge lenses are white, instead of black to match the camera? It's not really a brand thing (that's what the red ring is for), but it's for heat management, according to Canon. A black lens would absorb rather than reflect heat, which would cause it to expand, potentially causing image distortion or problems focusing. This isn't significant in smaller lenses, which is why they're still black.

The more you know.

Moving along, there was a near-complete Rockies team set from arguably the best set of the overproduction era, 1993 Upper Deck.

1993 Upper Deck #720 Willie Blair

Here's pitcher Willie Blair covering first base in Mile High Stadium, with Rockies legend Andres Galarraga "Observing" (I lied) the play nearby. Notice how UD subtly featured Blair on this card? Blair's head is in front of the Upper Deck logo at the top, but Galarraga's head is behind it. Very clever. It's little details like that, not to mention awesome photography, that make this set a classic.

What other collectibles do you remember in 1993? It was a tad too early for beanie babies (of which my sister had a nice collection), and Magic: The Gathering was just barely getting off the ground.

1993 Ted Williams POG Cards #11 Florida Marlins / Colorado Rockies

Remember pogs?

By 1993, I was already firmly entrenched in the world of baseball cards, but by the time I hit 5th grade (1994-1995), many of the other kids had dived headfirst into the world of pogs. Lots of games took place during lunch and recess (vaguely resembling tiddlywinks), and I remember a few kids that had elaborate "slammers" and colorful plastic tubes filled with the cardboard discs.

I owned one. And it was shiny.

My only pog.

You can't tell from the scan, but it has a refractor finish. I got this at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., probably during a field trip or a family visit. It's a pretty interesting place. The building was designed by Chinese architect I.M. Pei, who also did the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Louvre Pyramid. They have quite an assortment of supercomputers behind a big glass wall, lots of weather-related science exhibits, and even an early Cray-1 supercomputer on display in the lower lobby.

Back to cards, this seems like a good time to move on to the section with green cards.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Starquest #SQ-7 Matt Holliday

The above card of Matt Holliday (who also wore #5, just like Neifi Perez), is my second card from the 2008 StarQuest insert set. This was from the year after the Rockies made their first (and only, so far) appearance in the World Series, so the back of this card mentions quite a bit about his home runs during the 2007 postseason.

Also from 2008 is a Helton card from the Baseball Heroes set, commemorating his NL batting title in 2000.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes Emerald #59 Todd Helton /499

This set came in a lot of colors. It isn't just Topps that goes overboard with the number of colored parallels; UD was guilty of it too. I have this one in black, and a few others from the base set which is sort of a sand color, but the Emerald is quite nice. And it's serial numbered, so bonus points there.

As I mentioned earlier, this trade package mostly contained Rockies, but there were three or four cards from other teams.

2000 Upper Deck Black Diamond Rookie Edition #64 Jose Vidro

Given that the Expos haven't existed since 2004, it's pretty rare to see an Expos card in the wild these days. This is from yet another Upper Deck set, Black Diamond. This black, gold, and red 2000 Rookie Edition release ranks pretty high on my list of favorite Upper Deck designs.

Now, I'm definitely not the world's biggest Barry Bonds fan, although I do believe that he should be in the Hall of Fame, despite his use of steroids.

1995 Fleer Lumber Company #3 Barry Bonds

So why show it? Well, I am a set collector, so I do go for any card of a set I like. And I am pretty darn close to completing all the insert sets from 1995 Fleer. I only have a few left to go, but this one was on my "Eight Men Out" tab, the eight cards highest on my want list.

That Bonds card marks the first one I can cross off that list through trading! The Angels, In Order earned a spot in Infield Fly Rule history with this trade.

But he didn't stop there.

2011 Topps Town #TT-48 Troy Tulowitzki

This was the last card I needed to complete my set of the 50-card 2011 Topps Town, and it was indeed an Eight Men Out card. I truly appreciate this blogger taking the time to check my highest-priority wants and fill not just one, but two needs!

That, I'd say, is a successful trade.

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!

The Wallet Card

The latest craze sweeping the blog community is the "Wallet Card", an idea introduced by defgav at Baseball Card Breakdown.

I think we all understand the general idea by now, so I won't go into too much detail. Pick a card to carry in your wallet for a year, and take the occasional photo of it in your surroundings. I can't say I gave it a whole lot of thought; I just thumbed through a row in my duplicates box until I found something that I thought was meaningful.

However, there is one set out there that would be completely perfect for this trend.

1995 Studio Gold Series #42 Andres Galarraga

1995 Studio! They're designed to resemble credit cards, with holograms, rounded corners, and raised lettering. If I had some extras kicking around, I'd totally pick one of these. The above card, which was recently sent to me by William at Foul Bunt, is only the ninth card I own from that set. Alas, I have no duplicates to spare, and I don't want to ruin this one of The Big Cat by carrying it around all year.

So what did I end up choosing? I'll give you a few hints. It's a Rockie, of course. There is gold foil. The design matches the first factory set I ever purchased. And it's a player I've met in person.

1994 Topps Gold #372 Joe Girardi

Joe Girardi, who now manages the Yankees, will be accompanying me in cardboard form throughout 2015. I always liked this 1994 Topps set, so much so that I spent $45 on the factory set at the young age of ten. Rather than just a base card, I figured I'd go a little bit upscale by picking the Topps Gold parallel. And I met Mr. Girardi for an in-person autograph signing at the now-closed Rockies Dugout Store in Boulder, Colo., along with Eric Young.

It's a nice card, and this was my favorite parallel set as a boy. It's not quite to the level of The Junior Junkie, who picked Ken Griffey Jr.'s rookie card from 1989 Upper Deck, one of the only overproduction cards that still holds some decent monetary value.

Come back throughout the course of the year and see what adventures Mr. Girardi encounters.

Update: I was just looking over some previous posts, and it turns out that this one came to me in a trade from The Card Papoy all the way from France!

The Trading Post #13: Brad's Blog

Let me kick off the new year with the first of several trade posts.

Much of the blog community has been posting various countdowns, years-in-review, and collecting goals for 2015. None of that here (primarily because I am not the most focused collector you'll meet), just a good, old-fashioned trade post. With lots of newfangled shiny Rockies cards.

Shortly before Christmas, a package arrived from Brad at the Phillies-focused Brad's Blog. Brad put up a post about our trade a week or so before Christmas, and he found lots of assorted Phillies (and a few Frank Thomases) in the box I sent him. Based on what Brad sent in return, it's obvious that he has been opening a lot of Topps Chrome.

2012 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs #161 Jordan Pacheco (AU)

The card you see above isn't from Brad. I think it came from Christian, one of my local dealers who runs the monthly 5280 card show. The one Brad sent (below) is so similar as to momentarily trick me into thinking it was a duplicate. That's surprising, as my autograph collection is quite small. But then I noticed that Pacheco's autograph was noticeably different between the two cards. And the card itself was just a bit shinier.

2012 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractors #161 Jordan Pacheco (AU) /499

It's a Refractor parallel, numbered to 499! Now that I've been truly exposed to the wide variety of parallels in Topps' products these days (more on that later), I am finally learning to flip cards over to check for serial numbers or other special differences. Pacheco, who is now a Diamondback, clearly got a bit fatigued signing all these cards, and his Sharpie looks like it was nearing the end of its useful life. This is #41 of 499, so Pacheco had quite a way to go before Topps had what they needed from him.

There was lots more Topps Chrome in this shipment, including from the quite recent 2014 set. I bought a complete base set on eBay a couple months ago, but I haven't run across too many of the inserts or parallels other than what I've obtained via trade.

2014 Topps Chrome Blue Refractors #157 Michael Cuddyer /199

Michael Cuddyer spent three seasons as a Rockie, winning the NL batting title in 2013, and memorably hitting for the cycle in late 2014 after returning from the disabled list. The second ex-Rockie to appear in this post, Cuddy is headed for the Mets in 2015. That leaves the Rockies with only one former Twins star in Justin Morneau. Can Joe Mauer be far behind?

We'll see what the front office does, but for now I'll enjoy this serial-numbered blue refractor, one of eleven Refractor varieties in 2014 Chrome. Four of those are not serial numbered, and there are six other serial-numbered varieties scarcer than blue. Perhaps I'm beating a dead horse, but there are far too many colored parallels on the market these days. Anyone who has played with a prism knows that Topps is taking the concept of a "rainbow" pretty literally.

Like the 1972 inserts we saw in 2013, Topps again resurrected an old design for a Topps Chrome insert set, this time using 1989. We've seen that 1989 design already this year (recall the 1989 Die-Cut minis), but this is in the good old 2.5" x 3.5" standard format.

2014 Topps Chrome '89 Chrome Refractors #89TC-TT Troy Tulowitzki

I must admit, seeing expansion team names on these old, familiar designs is a bit strange. It's almost as though the font is just a hair too thin. Brad also threw in Carlos Gonzalez's card from this 25-card insert set, which completes the Rockies team set in one fell swoop.

As Tulo and CarGo are usually the only Rockies to appear in smaller sets, Brad also completed my Rockies team set from 2014 Chrome Connections, or as I like to call it, "The Game of Thrones" insert set.

2014 Topps Chrome Chrome Connections Die Cuts #CC-TT Troy Tulowitzki

I had the CarGo already, so in the unlikely event that I exclusively become a Rockies team collector, this one is done!

There isn't much I can do about the proliferation of colored parallels in Topps products, so I guess the best thing to do is develop an appreciation for cards that perfectly match the team colors.

2012 Bowman Platinum Prospects Purple Refractors #BPP5 Chad Bettis

If I were running Topps, I'd just color-code the parallels for each team. I'm sure the green ones look fantastic on A's cards, for example. Simply pick the best one for each team and leave it at that. In fact, I like this 2012 card even more than its counterpart in 2013 Bowman Platinum. But at least Chad Bettis has appeared in the Majors, which is more than can be said for many of the players in Bowman sets.

On to the older stuff, starting with my third card and first Rockie from a very innovative mid-1990s insert set, Leaf Preferred Steel.

1996 Leaf Preferred Steel #37 Larry Walker

And yes, it really is actual steel. But don't take my word for it. If you have one of these, grab a magnet and check! One odd thing I noticed (besides that it's, well, metal) is that the card is numbered "37 of seventy-seven". Seeing the two numbering styles side by side is a bit strange and I can't think of any other card set that does it that way.

Brad didn't limit the shiny Topps stuff to recent Chrome sets. He included four cards from 1994 Topps Finest, which comes in a great shade of green.

1994 Finest #35 Andres Galarraga

I obtained a "Preproduction" example of this Galarraga card in the first factory set I ever purchased, 1994 Topps. I called every card shop in the Denver area (and there were many, many more then than there are now) and located one for $45, a huge chunk of savings from a ten-year old's allowance. That card had "preproduction" lettering in red on the back, but this one is from the standard base set. I know this card pretty well, but I didn't remember that it had the 125th Anniversary logo on the back.

Taking a page from Topps Gold, which came one-per-pack, Score developed a competing product called Gold Rush for 1994 and 1995.

1995 Score Gold Rush #370 Ellis Burks

The foil on these cards is quite fragile. I have a few from this parallel set that are peeling straight off the card stock, but this one is perfectly intact. I don't really follow cards outside baseball, but hockey collectors may be interested to know that Panini resurrected the Score brand and its Gold Rush parallel set for a recent hockey release.

Brad also included about a half-dozen cards from Score's 1994 base set, most of which I hadn't seen before.

1994 Score #170 Steve Reed

Steve Reed was one of my favorite Rockies pitchers as a young fan. I knew that his submarine delivery was something unusual even then. I'll have to see if I have an extra copy for Nick at Dime Boxes. He loves these snapshots of players signing autographs.

As the snow continues to fall in the Denver area, Coors Field is still a few months away from hosting a sporting event, though there is talk of an outdoor NHL game for the Colorado Avalanche in the not-too-distant future.

2010 Upper Deck #549 Colorado Rockies BP

Appropriately, the final card of this post shows a dusting of snow atop the statue that stands outside Coors Field's Home Plate entrance at 20th and Blake. Normally, I'd have expected Upper Deck to have included a summertime shot of Coors Field, but they rushed this final 2010 set to market amid legal squabbles over their MLB license.

The more I trade, the tougher it gets to pick just a handful of cards from a great trade package. Thanks to Brad for sending over lots of shiny objects, both cardboard and metal!