Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #142

I got this card in-hand the same day Trout broke the Angels franchise record for home runs, hitting his 300th to pass Tim Salmon - oddly, as much as Trout has been anointed the best player in the game, once in a while, I still tend to think of him as a boy wonder who first came into the league.

Though speculating can be a waste of time, it will be interesting to see if Trout can hit another 300-400 home runs and beyond - where he puts himself position to challenge the all-time home run record.

As far as Topps Project 2020, the values of individual cards have mostly settled below what they initially have sold for on Topps.com - I have two more Trouts [Naturel and Grotesk] I'm waiting on from purchases made at least a couple of months ago and decided to actually pass on picking up the last two Trouts released [Vides and Efdot].

Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #187

I’ve got to keep up with my Trout run of Project 2020 cards [minus two cards so far], though since the hype around the Topps Project 2020 cards have been sucked out - I’ve tended to make myself wait before committing to an eventual purchase featuring Trout.

Through the early part of the abbreviated MLB season, the new father and birthday boy is still a consistently great player with a great all-around approach - I guess it feels good to buy a little piece of someone who is legit, particularly after a big home run night against the Seattle Mariners the other night.

Father time always wins but watching Trout evolve from a 'kid' to a full grown man and bonafide big leaguer, it should be fun watching him entering his 30s [starting in 2021] - to see if his great all-around approach remains where he has a fighting chance to fend off a decline phase and might actually get a little better.

Topps Project 2020 Keith Shore Ken Griffey Jr. #88

I got this card in the mail from Topps and despite its notoriety, it's going into my micro-mini Ken Griffey Jr. PC - Shore's cards were probably the oddest looking Project 2020 cards early on, like he purposely dumbed his cards down to appeal to third graders, but market conditions have made his cards [Don Mattingly and Mark McGwire for example] valuable just the same.

After the boom, now everyone was going to pounce on any future Shore release and the hype was huge as Junior happened to be the next Shore card - because of FOMO I bought one just the same, but I knew there was going to be 70,000 of these cards made instead of the sub 10,000 numbers his early cards did.

Just to show I’m either not looney or maybe just not smart enough at the time, I didn’t get the other card - a Joshua Vides Nolan Ryan because while any of these Project 2020 cards might have been cash money cards, I’m only focused on the Mike Trouts [regardless of print run or future value] and a card or two that catch my eye.

After the fact, I was only off about 20,000 as there were 99,177 Shore Griffey Jr. [and 64,629 Vides Ryan] cards - the lure of the flip value brought in chumps who keyed in on the Griffey Jr., believing very new Project 2020 card was going to be a quick flip for at least $500 each.

After the Shore Griffey Jr. release, the values crashed and no one is going to be bragging about making a mint off any one particular card - I lost about $13 on the Griffey Jr. since I paid the full price [$21.44 including tax] on Topps.com for a single card.

Maybe the Vides Ryan, paired with the Griffey Jr. wasn't a serious consideration for me but I can pick one up for $10 as well.

Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #100

I didn’t pounce on Ben Baller's first Project 2020 card, which featured Ichiro, but had to get his first Trout and this collaboration card with artist Blake Jamieson - for the ironic ‘bling’ factor, even if it has nothing to do with anything.

Where Trout is probably all country, the Ben Baller part of this card is supposed to be loud, garish and in your face - maybe the Jamieson part is a little iffy when looking up close at Trout's face, which looks a 'bit fishy,' but it's not like the image shows Trout from the neck up.

It’s funny I wouldn’t know Ben Baller except for intermittently checking his Twitter feed for at least the past few years because he tends to tweet out either something I get a laugh off or something real to think about - he is this prominent jeweler to all the rapper, hip hop guys, a dude who talks big with always something to say.

I found it ironic he would be commissioned to be one of the people to participate in creating this baseball card set for Topps - I can't do real bling, bling but trading cards are right up alley and when the first Baller Trout came out, figured these might be an alternative purchase to one of those damn Utz chips cards that I would never find out in the wild.

I missed on a couple of Trouts I didn't like at first [Thiele and Fucci], but moving forward I'm up for getting at least one Trout and the random non-Trout subject that may catch my eye - print runs and apparent future values be damned since Project 2020 has been a polarizing, yet captivating release through this COVID-19 pandemic.

1993 Bowman Andy Pettitte RC #103

I'm trying to pick and choose to add certain scratch the itch rookie cards - many of the rookies I'd like to add to my PC come from the junk wax era years through the UV coated era years of the mid 1990s, so while I want to add a card here and there, I don't want to go 'all-in' on a big shopping spree outright.

I picked up Pettitte's rookie, because the lefthander is considered one of the Yankees' all-time greats as part of the Core Four [Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Pettitte and Jorge Posada] - there might be a case to be made for Pettitte to get into the Hall of Fame, even if was a PED guy with one-time pal Roger Clemens.

I've always thought Pettitte was a No. 3 or No. 4 starter who was ultimately more serviceable than dominant for a New York Yankees dynasty through the late 1990s - he was an innings eater, who pitched in important games during the Yankees' postseason runs through October.

On the other hand, while things weren't always in Pettitte's control - he gave up too many hits and his ERA always seemed inflated.

1959 Fleer Ted Williams card pickup

There are simply other interesting cards from this eclectic one-player vintage set, but I impulsively grabbed this one as a bookend card for my micro-mini Ted Williams PC - which, as a tribute to the Hall of Fame icon, apparently exists with two or three other cards and a couple of autographed items.

I like the card because it seems kind of a quirky image where Williams is having his eye exam, holding up a tool where his face is partially obscured - whether or not it is the case, I dwell on the idea he is playing peekaboo, either bored or too good to have his picture properly taken.

Loose ungraded singles only sell for so much, so any sort of serious value is just not there for these 60-year old cards - to tie this pick up with some current events, I simply chose a PSA graded copy, even when sifting through issues with third party grading of more significant vintage cards.

2012 Topps factory set Bryce Harper cards

Harper has had a pretty good start with his new team and it’s going to be interesting to see if he holds up through the rest of the season - both these Harper rookie-year cards were included as part of the 2012 Topps factory sets, so they aren't too hard to find.

Even though the cards weren't randomly inserted in packs, due to a little FOMO - I picked up a copy of each for my micro-mini Harper personal collection.

I wouldn't say pulling one is common, but I’ve seen the 'screaming variation' found enough times through $5 repack boxes that I wanted one outright - so at the very least, I don’t go fiending out trying to find my own copy of the card.

The screaming Harper is 1 of 5 factory rookie variation cards inserted as a bonus - the card to the right ['front leg up'] is the factory set variation of Harper’s super short print rookie card from 2012 Topps Series 2.

Presumably the factory set variation was issued because Topps wanted traditional set collectors to have a Harper card with 2012 sets - even though it just isn't the flagship SSP Harper card coveted by serious collectors / speculators.

1986 Donruss Jose Canseco RC #39

If nothing else, this pickup allows me to have a copy of one the best rookies in the hobby, circa 1991 - I think about building up a collection of the hottest cards whose values have come and gone, but I'd be once proud to show off as young collector.

In real life, my youth is ancient history and I don’t know if can find others anywhere who might care - when I dig around and look for occasional baseball card 'war' stories on social media, forums or blogs mentioning this card in particular, I’ll pat myself on the back for having a nostalgic status symbol from way back when.’

As it stands, Canseco is a buffoon, a shyster and a Twitter troll - maybe long declared irrelevant, I did enjoy parts from his two books where [regardless of where one stands as far as Canseco 'ratting out' his old teammates, friends and frenemies] he exposed how the raw the Steroid Era was.

He said he wouldn’t have made the big leagues without PEDs but he had some staying power - maybe for three or four years, he might have been Mike Trout with ‘bite,’ a 5-tool player with power and speed as his prominent attributes.

Canseco was always the bad boy jock, but had he cultivated a little more of a clean cut image and a bit more discreet about his indiscretions - he might be a borderline HOFer with his numbers.

Because they were valuable commodities, I don’t know if I seriously chased after any one particular Canseco rookie era card - I still remember the friend whose house I used to go to having the 1986 Donruss Rookies as a likely centerpiece card of his collection.

Maybe in one of the first times, I splurged on a handful of singles at a card shop, I picked up Canseco's 1987 Topps - in the mid 1990s, I might have had a couple of Canseco's cards from the 1986 Donruss Highlights boxed set.

It maybe a little weird looking back, but a 1991 Score Dream Team Canseco was a card I wanted badly - I don’t think it ever was as popular as the Bo Jackson Dream Team subset card from 1990, but for a while, it was a notable card on its own.

Canseco was the ‘it’ player in MLB and he was posed swinging a bat topless by a notable fashion photographer - probably through means I’m not proud of, I might remember pulling the card off loose packs from the local supermarket.

Years later, I remember getting autographs at the ballpark in 1999 and Canseco came out of the front after a game - I must have been going batty when I spotted him and rushed to have him sign a couple of the Beckett magazines I must have bought at a card show.

He scribbled on them dismissively, but here I was seeing one the biggest stars of my childhood in the flesh - I tried asking him for a photo and he said, 'no' but I may still have it somewhere where I got the worst picture of me and him 'together' as he's walking.

1973 Topps Dwight Evans RC #614

Rookie cards of the hall of very good or guys with borderline cases, who end up getting jumped into the Hall of Fame - maybe the new market inefficiency in collecting cardboard.

I've never thought much about Evans except as an older veteran guy pictured on junk wax era cards through the early 1990s - as is, I picked up his multiplayer rookie card because with Harold Baines getting into the Hall of Fame, it might reopen the door for a better all-around player like Evans.

Evans was a longtime star for the Boston Red Sox, but not a national superstar in terms of sentiment - as the story goes, through the first part of his playing career, Evans was a good defensive right fielder with a competent bat, but his year-to-year numbers as a hitter didn't quite 'pop' until he was in his 30s.

Evans fell off the HOF ballot 20 years ago, but there would have been a campaign to get him in the Hall of Fame like a Bert Blyleven or Tim Raines - instigated by a generation of writers / bloggers more inclined to look not just at the counting numbers, but also the advanced stats to push through their personal pet projects.

If Evans' career was quite unfamiliar to me past his junk wax era cards, I can kind of see where picturing him like Tim Salmon would make sense - Salmon [for my 'home team' Angels of the early 1990s] wasn't quite a true franchise quality player, but as a hard hitting outfielder / DH, he was the heart and soul for the Angels for his career.

#CARDCORNER: 1991 Topps Dwight Evans

1997 Bowman’s Best Adrian Beltre RC #117

I wanted a Beltre rookie card and grabbed this as an impulsive purchase to squirrel away - the 1997 Bowman Chrome RC #182 is the one to have, but maybe I’ll wait a little bit before seeking that one out.

This maybe a condition sensitive card as chrome cards from the 1990s tend to ‘hulk’ when exposed to the weather conditions - the copy of the card I picked up doesn’t appear to be discolored, though I have to account for when it happens.

Admittedly for the longest time, up through when the retiring Beltre was gunning for his 3,000th hit - I didn’t think much of him as having the numbers to merit any sort of serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

I’ve always thought he was a minor star at best who lucked into a flukish season in 2004 - after collecting his 3,000 hits in 2017 and passing Rod Carew in 2018 as the all-time Latin American hits leader, Beltre's baseball playing accomplishments have the substance as he looks to become a first ballot Hall of Famer in five years.

Accounting for his all-world defense, the hitting numbers and the quirkiness he’s occasionally exhibited, Beltre has become a fan favorite to be goofed on in good fun - he didn't he like his head touched by his teammates and he had one of the most exaggerated follow throughs on his swing.

He and Texas Rangers teammate Elvis Andrus never get tired of messing around with each other - Andrus seems to be Beltre’s best friend on the field, but also his main antangonist.

1995 Topps Traded Carlos Beltran RC #18T

This rookie card was on my ‘holes to fill’ list and I randomly decided to finally pick a copy up for my PC - even though Beltran’s rookie card is messed up because it isn't his picture on the card.

The card pictures Juan LeBron, who was the Kansas City Royals' first round pick [19th overall] in 1995, but failed to reach the major leagues - Beltran, who was the Royals’ second round pick [49th overall] from the same draft class is pictured on LeBron’s card, though the card listed with Beltran’s name / bio should still be the one that commands any interest [regardless of the goof].

After a player retires like Beltran did in 2017, there maybe an extended period of time where you are just out of sight, out of mind - though as a borderline Hall of Fame player, Beltran may gain support for his eventual induction in Cooperstown.

1978 Topps Paul Molitor / Alan Trammell RC #707

Centering on this copy is off a bit and maybe the edges on the back show some imperfections, but this card was a scratch the itch add to my PC - maybe the card will look different once in-hand, but maybe the most important consideration is the yellow space above the red bottom border looks fairly clean without smudging.

As a manager, Molitor just got fired by the Minnesota Twins - but I’m trying to find a narrative as far as my recollections of him as an active player.

Seeing a loose junk wax era card of his, I might have thought 'The Ignitor' was a minor star at best, winding down his playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers through the end of the 1980s - he had a 39-game hitting streak in 1987, but there wasn’t as much attachment to him as any kind of ‘real star’ when I first started collecting.

With no particularly feelings attached to any particular player - I look at his numbers, how good he was, how many home runs hit, how high the batting average was and how many runners were driven in.

I thought there might have been a pronounced decline of some sort in his 30s, but Molitor was quite productive - looking at his stats from 1988-1992, he was putting up ‘Paul Molitor numbers’ and played in over 150 games in all but one of those seasons for the Brewers.

I noticed how he might have been a great player after all, because he was a hitting machine for the Toronto Blue Jays in the mid 1990s - the perennially contending Blue Jays finally won a championship in 1992 and in the organization’s defense of a World Series title, Molitor was another quality veteran added for repeat World Series championship run in 1993 [he was named MVP of the 1993 World Series].

After waiting for quite a while, Trammell was finally inducted the Hall of Fame this past year - he played through 1996 but his last hurrah as a star player probably ended through the 1980s.

As is, he was pretty familiar as a junk wax era guy - maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all but he was also pretty accommodating about signing, the times I’ve gotten him as a retired player, so he gets a thumbs up in my book.

1977 Topps Mark Fidrych #277

I picked this card up for a sampler run of PSA graded Topps cards from 1952-1980 - to be quite honest, the project has been in mothballs and with 7 of 29 cards towards my run, completion just isn't foreseeable at this point.

Once in a while, I might get impulsive and see if I could make a 'token' addition to see if I can even get halfway through - I don't know if it is possible to pick up a 'culturally significant' card for each of the years and I don't want to go through the trouble of doing so.

I've worked myself up as far as reading up on and wanting notable old-school / vintage rookie cards of Hall of Famers for my personal collection - but maybe the reasons for wanting this particular non-HOF rookie card are a little different.

Even as I'm only vaguely aware of Fidrych's impact as a cult figure during his only full season in Major League Baseball in 1976 - I consider his rookie as a trading card 'relic' of sorts, something I can look at and consider as a portal to the past.

2001 Upper Deck Albert Pujols #295

I don't think I actually saw many Pujols rookie cards in his rookie year, so after all these years, I guess I'd like to add at least a couple to my PC - the 2001 Upper Deck and 2001 Bowman [#264] were the most 'widely' available rookie cards from Pujols' rookie year even though all his cards were in demand all season long.

While Pujols rookie card and rookie year issues were pumped out in mid through late season products, but I never had a chance to own but maybe two or three - including a factory set rookie year card from the 2001 Fleer Tradition, maybe an ugly Team Leaders subset card [#435] from 2001 Fleer Platinum RC Edition, a 2001 Topps Traded Pujols / Ichiro subset card [T99] and a 2001 Topps rookie card I bought at a card shop for a quarter maybe in 2002.

I remember finding the Topps Pujols in the particular card shop, when the quarter boxes were color coded with tabs - because the store owner was selling certain rows of cards on consignment.

The Topps rookie had a soft corner and I'd foolishly sent it to Pujols as a TTM autograph request - of course after 17 years, it never came back, even as a failure.

In recent years, the 38-year old Pujols hasn't been as relevant and still has at least 3 years left to go to play out his Angels contract [on the field] - however, Pujols' baseball accomplishments [short of a PED scandal] can't be taken away by what he has done away from St. Louis.

Mail day - 2012 Topps Bryce Harper #US-183

I don't think Harper can ever match Mike Trout's run of excellence but Harper is still the player big league fans are waiting on to go HAM for years to come - I had seen this card on the Dime Boxes blog and I wondered if I should look into picking one up.

I was looking for a graded copy and lost an impulsive bid for a BGS 9.5 - for just about the same price as a discounted blaster however, I found another listing after the fact and jumped at it, even though I want to have some peace of mind as far as something slabbed.

From what I've read up on, I would assume Harper’s 2012 Topps Update rookie debut maybe his most popular ‘mainstream’ rookie year card even though it is from a subset - I think the rookie debut subset cards are annoying, but Harper's 2012 Topps Series II card is an SSP that is simply hard to find.

Harper does have 2012 Topps factory set cards [a non SSP version of #661 and a factory set rookie insert card] - but the demand for those cards are relatively soft, presumably since the factory sets are usually printed in abundance and contain the pair [as opposed to being pack pulled issues].

1986 Donruss Fred McGriff RC #28

This may not be a significant purchase because there are too many of them - but for my Top 50 common PC, I wanted a rookie of McGriff to group with two certified autograph cards I've picked up over the years.

Here is Sports Illustrated's in-depth look at McGriff's career - the movement for once borderline HOF guys like Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines were championed by numbers guys, but because McGriff falls quite short of the advanced metrics standards for first baseman, he isn't getting the same 'after the fact' support.

While the numbers don't lie, I do think it’s time McGriff gets a serious bump for induction into the Hall of Fame - unlike other sluggers, McGriff numbers never really experienced a power surge through the mid 1990s, yet he still hit 493 home runs as a consistent, metronomic slugger.

1975 Topps Robin Yount RC #223

I added another old school rookie card to the personal collection and while this was more of an impulsive pick-up as opposed to a priority at the top of a wantlist - there is some lingering nostalgia over this card, especially when paired up with George Brett's rookie card [#228] from the same set.

While Brett's playing career was a bit more larger than life and his rookie card seems to be held in higher regard than Yount's - both players are one-team franchise legends who each got their 3,000th hit in 1992 and were part of the same Hall of Fame class in 1999.

While I was superficially aware of Yount as a HOF legend with all these accomplishments - I had to dig through his numbers to see how his playing career evolved since I somehow believed he was more of a compiler as opposed to being a dominant player at various points of his playing career.

Getting to the big leagues as an 18-year old really helped boost Yount's counting numbers - maybe if he'd come up at 23 or 24 like a more typical big leaguer, his playing career would be more like J.J. Hardy's than Derek Jeter's.

But what changed my perspective about about Yount's 20-year career is when he became an impact offensive player in his prime - for a 4-year period through the mid 1980s, Yount established himself as one of the best players in all of baseball, checking off all the boxes as far as a guy who could hit for average, hit for power, steal bases and be a good defender at shortstop.

If somehow I'd be aware of baseball when Yount was really putting up the numbers, he would have been a fun player to follow, reminiscent of offense minded shortstops who would come of age in the late 1990s - guys like Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra.

1975 Topps Gary Carter RC #620

I want to be greedy in adding traditional rookie cards of legends / icons from old school/vintage years when possible - there maybe tiers as far as rookie card wants go; a rule of thumb is cards have to be at least be 20 years old to make the list.

As a last minute purchase for 2017, I had to get this rookie card of a Hall of Fame catcher since it cost as much as a discounted blaster - I don’t think it’s too weird anymore but it maybe a little peculiar to commit to buy a baseball card, when I’m out in BFE somewhere in a daze, tagging along with my parents on a casino trip late at night.

Multiplayer rookie cards are ugly, especially if it becomes the RC of a Hall of Fame legend who has to share it with one or more marginal players - but it’s part of the quirkiness of old-school/vintage cards to squeeze multiple unproven players on a card.

Carter was a prime time star with the Montreal Expos from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s - however, I was only aware of Carter's playing days through the junk wax era cards he showed up on during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

1978 Topps Eddie Murray RC #36

I want to build up a traditional rookie card collection [consisting of cards at least 20 years old, cards that aren't serial numbered, autographed or glow in the dark] - but on a relative budget however, it’s hard to be picky as far as finding notable RCs with decent eye appeal; many of the mid level options I've seen listed on eBay just look a bit too rough for my taste.

I probably sent out an APB for a copy of this card after seeing it ranked No. 7 among the greatest cards of the 1970s on the Night Owl Cards blog - I did trade for another copy of the card years ago, but it probably compares best to 'well loved' ones on eBay I'd disregard otherwise.

This card is a little off-center, which I'm sort of a stickler on - but seems pretty clean otherwise.

While the Hall of Famer's prime years was with the Baltimore Orioles in the 1980s - I remember him playing past the junk wax era and through the mid 1990s as a player gunning for both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

1975 Topps Herb Washington #407

I put this card on my eBay watch list and I finally decided to pick it up for my Topps sampler run [1952-1980] - besides the notable stars, legends and Hall of Famers I may pick up for the collection, I also want to push the narrative of featuring lesser known guys who had their 15 minutes of fame in pro baseball.

Washington probably had as much big league success as any random person who wasn't an actual baseball player can have in Major League Baseball - but as a world class sprinter, he was given a chance to do his thing for a little bit, even if stumbled in the biggest stage one can find themselves in.