El Cheapo: AL Central

AL CENTRALMost Recent World Series Victory: 2005 Chicago White SoxTeam: Cleveland IndiansBuyer: BSFavorite Card: 1977 Hostess #69 Buddy BellThe hack job on this one was beautiful. I’m envisioning a little kid absentmindedly cutting away on a Saturday …

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Ryan Pitches Over Some Great Fish! I got a few bites when I recently asked the readers of my blog to donate any Miami Marlins cards from the 2012 Topps Heritage set a few weeks back. And the cards that … Continue reading →

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Baseball Card Show Purchase #7 – Hanley Ramirez X 43 I had no intention of doing this, but looking back now, I am really happy that I did. One of the dealers has his bargain bins sorted by team.  This … Continue reading →

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It Starts With One!!! It all starts with one. Everything starts with one. What the hell am I talking about??? Well, it could be anything. But this time, it is Heritage – 2012 Topps Heritage to be exact. And for … Continue reading →

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Cardboard Fenway – #97. 2006 Topps Heritage Keith Foulke

The photos in this set are bad across the board; way too fuzzy for high-quality photography. Here’s Keith in his home whites. Not sure if it’s at Fenway or in Fort Myers, Florida.

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Cardboard Fenway – #94. 2003 Topps Heritage Nomar Garciaparra (logo variation)

Man, Nomar was awesome. Remember when the debate was who was the better shortstop, Jeter, A-Rod, or Nomar? ‘Tis a shame that his career with the Sox ended like it did.

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Cardboard Fenway – #81. 2008 Topps Heritage Dustin Pedroia

Dustin looks so sedate here: no eye-wagging, no gaping mouth. And where was this photo taken? All of the Red Sox players in this set look like they were thrown up against a wall in the bowel…

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Card #172412008 SP Authentic #3 Albert Pujols As abstract card designs go, I like this design. It’s busy but with lots of white space.Card #22011994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #33 Mike Piazza1994 saw Upper Deck issuing several parallel sets for t…

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Here are just some cards from the set that have stuck my fancy for one reason or another.What do instructions do you suppose that the photographer gave Ross? Smile? Look natural?Last year, a lot of the Heritage cards featured players with their hats of…

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As I mentioned last week, I bought 2 packs, 2 rack-packs and 3 blasters of 2012 Topps Heritage. I’m not planning to buy a hobby box this year.  I didn’t get much from the packs, but the blasters had a good yield, including a relic. It used to pret…

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I finally picked up a few packs of Topps Heritage cards this week, but I didn’t have any luck finding Mets. I did end up with two different Derek Jeter cards and a bunch of Boston Red Sox that will be moving on to new homes shortly, and then there was this card showing former Mets [...]

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I managed to hit one of my local Target’s on Monday and picked up a couple of packs of 2012 Topps Heritage retail.  I pulled a few SPs and inserts along with a slew of base cards. But in one pack there was something suspicious, and now my mind is running wild about what it [...]

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I went to the local big-box store and bought me some 2012 Topps Heritage over the weekend. I bought 2 packs, 2 rack-packs and 3 blasters. I’m not planning to buy a hobby box this year so I was hoping to get a good selection. I’m actually pretty happy w…

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Filmed this two days ago, March 15, 2012, in Colma, Calif.
Enjoy:

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For more than a decade, Topps has been creating the Topps Heritage brand under the idea of releasing today’s stars using designs from yesteryear. The set was a hit when it hit shelves in 2001 and continues to be to this day.  People love the designs, the short prints, the notion of authenticity as it [...]

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It’s becoming clear that Topps now thinks of the New York Mets as a second-tier team. While there are 13 Mets cards in the 33o-card Topps Series 1 (14 if you count the National League Batting Leaders card), there are only three in the 220-card Topps Opening Day set that just came out (175 Jason Bay, 187 [...]

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The arrival of this year’s Topps Heritage, is still about a week away, but we noticed that you liked what you saw out of our last preview gallery (click here), so here are a few more images from our early retail box cracked without the cameras rolling.

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This year’s edition of the hobby’s annual throwback to yesteryear, Topps Heritage, isn’t set to arrive in hobby shops until March 14, but we got our hands on an early sample box and cracked it without the cameras rolling.

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Case Break – 6 Box 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League – Blowout Cards Forums.

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Topps unveiled the basic product information and preview images for a new Minor League Baseball line on Tuesday afternoon, 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League Edition, which will arrive in mid-September with three very notable inclusions.

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One man among us has perfected the art of the Bip, and he is Chris Harris from Stale Gum. He has been known to send a package my way from time to time. A week (or was it two weeks?) ago was one of those times. I’ve been Galarragaed by Stale Gum, as …

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Frank Robinson 2008 Topps Heritage ‘Flashbacks’ I love sets like this!!! The set tagged as ‘Flashbacks’ takes us back to some incredible moments in baseball history.  This card here pays homage to Frank Robinson hitting for the cycle during the … Continue reading →

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The other day I picked up what will most likely be my only Topps Heritage cards this year. I can’t say I’m that excited about the 1962 design, but I was still curious enough to purchase one of the three-pack dealies that Target started selling. What …

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I finally got my hands on some Topps Heritage cards towards the end of last week. I love the Mets cards – Topps did a great job capturing the feel of the original set. I find the non-Mets cards completely uninteresting, with few exceptions. I approve of the decision to use cap-less photos for most [...]

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I had to pick up a few things at Target, so I stopped in the card aisle. Still no Topps Heritage cards. Instead, I bought a couple more packs of Opening Day. I only got one Met, but it was the one Opening Day card I really wanted: Not bad, not bad at all. Filed [...]

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I got an email from Ritchie to let me know that some original Mets have certified autographs in this year’s Topps Heritage set. So far, we’ve spotted Ed Bouchee and Frank Thomas. The Bouchee cards seem a bit more plentiful than the Thomas ones right now, but one still sold for $37.50 a little while [...]

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I’m very pleased with my two boxes of 2011 Topps Heritage. I love the design, which is based on the 1962 Topps design, wood-grain background and big bold yellow geometrical shapes. The pictures, however, remind me a bit of the misguided 2009 O-Pee-Chee…

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Join Beckett Baseball’s Chris Olds and Brian Fleischer as they rip into a pair of 2011 Topps Heritage baseball boxes in this latest edition of Box Busters.

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After spending so much time looking at pictures and news about the earthquake in Japan, I needed to spend a few minutes thinking about something happy & fun. (Some good news – Mets pitcher Ryota Igarashi learned that his family is ok, according to Bergen Record reporter Art Stapleton. If you want to contribute to [...]

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The Lakewood BlueClaws will hold their 2011 Fanfest at First Energy Park on Saturday, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. This will be your first chance to buy single game BlueClaws tickets. Enjoy free food, tour the ballpark and take advantage of sales in the team store. Bring a non-perishable food donation and receive vouchers for two [...]

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I think it was only “hobby” issued, but I need to confirm: Was there both hobby and retail version of 2001 Topps Heritage? If so how do you tell the difference on the unopened box?

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Today is Al Kaline’s birthday.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Tiger himself!

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I took advantage of the Thanksgiving deal over at COMC to knock a few cards off my wantlist. Actually, because shipping was so cheap (instead of the pretty expensive and quick to add up that it usually is) I filled out some other wants & needs as well, but that’s for another time.

For now, 36.36% of my wantlist has been trimmed down including:

#3 on my list, part of the Home Run Derby contest inserts that Topps used to run

2008 Topps Gary Sheffield Home Run Derby Contest (#/999)

#5: A fantastic Heritage SP

2009 Topps Heritage #461 Tigers Coaches

#8: The last base card I need from 2010 Topps (which may just happen to be the worst card in the whole set. I mean seriously, look at that picture.)

2010 Topps Update US-24 Miguel Cabrera/Vlad Guerrero

#10: The last base card I needed from 2010 Topps T-206

2010 Topps T-206 #165 Ty Cobb

And with that, I have some serious thinking to do about how to replace these on my list. Fortunately, I’ve been inundated with cards lately (since when was being inundated with something good?), which means that more holes have been filled and I’m sitting on a bunch of sets where I’m just a couple cards from completion. My guess is those will be making the list–I’m looking at you 2010 Topps Gold Ryan Perry.

As always, I tend to put cards on here that are low-end, easy to find types. Just in case somebody out there happens to be flipping through their piles of cards, trips upon something on the list and feels like sending a little care package my way…

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Topps has teased the first glimpse at the 2011 version of one of its most popular baseball card sets, Topps Heritage, and to no one’s surprise it carries the classic design of the 1962 Topps set.

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I’m getting crushed–crushed–at work, and found out yesterday that I need to hit the road for business tomorrow and Thursday before coming back for meetings all day Friday, all while I have a major report due for a client in three weeks that will literally require all of my available working hours between now and then. So, short post it is.

I was pretty lucky in a couple of finds at the National, which just proves that persistence pays off. (I was equivalently lucky in a couple eBay finds recently, which I’ll highlight in a separate post). As for my favorite:

2006 Topps Heritage #95 Justin Verlander Chrome (#/1957)

This came from a memorabilia dealer at the national who had a small box of cards on the size of her booth, divided by player. She told me upfront: “see if there’s anything you like in there, everything is under $1 and most of it is twenty-five cents.” So I browsed–most of the cards were base cards or inserts that I already had or didn’t much care for collecting–and then I pulled this out. It’s a Heritage Chrome, something I actually collect, of Justin Verlander in his Rookie Year. I handed it over, told her that this was the only card that I was really interested in and she gave it a glance before saying, without hesitation, “$0.25.”

Sold.

Considering that the cheapest you can hope to ever find a single like this online is $.99 plus shipping, I was pretty happy with the take-away. Add-in that this was Verlander’s rookie year (Enjoy number 59, rook!), from a set that I actually collect, and this was as good of a bargain as anyone could ever hope for, small potatoes be damned.

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