Best Insert of the Year?

A set that I usually skip out on upon its release each year, Topps Chrome Update takes most of the rookie and All-Star game cards from the base Update set and prints them on gorgeous chrome card stock. Then, they add a couple of insert sets, refractors, and autographs to the mix, releasing the product as a retail-exclusive.

The promise of adding chrome rookie cards from this year's class to my collection intrigued me to test the waters with this release, but the 150 Years of Baseball inserts captivated my attention, even more as quite possibly my favorite part of this set.

Though they weren't the only inserts to be featured in Chrome Update, both the checklist and photography behind this simple set give it a ton of appeal. In Series 1, 2, and Update, I didn't think much of these inserts other than the fact that they'd be great additions to my player collections.

The chrome design, however, elevates these cards to the point where they rank as some of my favorite cards of 2019. The refractor finish on these beautiful cards looks terrific, even more so in-hand rather than in a scanned image.

Just like the standard inserts, the chrome cards pay homage to the greatest players, moments, and seasons in Baseball history with a checklist of ~25 cards. The insert sets from Series 1, 2, and Update, on the other hand, featured much larger checklist sizes, some as high as 150 cards.

The Chrome Update set, however, consists primarily of retired players so that the most noteworthy aspects of Baseball history are showcased. Whereas Update featured players like Alex Bregman and Dwight Gooden, Chrome Update sticks to HOF legends like Cal Ripken Jr and Rickey Henderson.

Another benefit of having the checklist be mostly retired players is that I can add these gorgeous cards to my player collections, though I might want to build the insert set and keep them all together instead.

From gold tier PCs like George Brett to recently-created ones like Tony Gwynn, the set features a wide range of Baseball's brightest stars. I have not, however, found a checklist for 2019 Topps Chrome Update, so I have no clue who's in this set aside from the handful of players whose cards I pulled.

The beauty of this set, moreover, is that the images could be from present-day, the early decades of the 20th century, or any year in-between. Simply put, Topps did an excellent job with this entire set, so much so that I was able to justify the $20 per mega box of 28 cards.

Hank Aaron's card, for instance, looks like something you'd see out of Stadium Club. The background, on the other hand, features a player wearing the #4, though I can't tell if there's another number after it that the photo cropped out.

Assuming that the player does wear #4, it's probably Danny O'Connell or Red Schoendienst, for they were the only Milwaukee Braves players to wear #4 during Aaron's career before the team relocated to Atlanta in 1966.

One of the first 150 Years chrome inserts that I pulled was Mike Trout, presumably the only active player on the checklist. For a while, it was his card that captivated me more so than any of the others. 

There's just something so special about how this refractor looks in person and how the rainbow shines and pairs with his red home uniform. 

At this point, given his accomplishments and stat line, it's far from a hot take to declare Trout one of the game's greatest players, though he has more work to do if he wants to keep climbing the list.

As much as I absolutely love the Mike Trout card, Babe Ruth's greatest moments insert may go down as my favorite card of 2019. The black and white photo, in person, with the chrome refractor finish, is truly indescribable. I almost have to take a picture of the card to showcase just how beautiful it is.

I'm not sure whether Topps has used this photo of Ruth in the past, but even if they have, they did an excellent job of repurposing the image for this card. 

Upon pulling this card out of one of the packs, I concluded that the 150 Years of Baseball insert from 2019 Topps Chrome Update can sufficiently rank as one of the greatest insert sets of the year.

The Ruth insert, moreover, might just be my pick for the card of the year.

My Best Yankees Cards

Along with the Red Sox and Cubs, it seems that I have a natural ability to both purchase New York Yankees cards and pull them from packs. Because of that, I'd go as far as to say that the Yankees are the 3rd most represented team in my entire collection, behind only the 2 previously mentioned clubs.

While I don't quite know if this is a positive thing or not, it's somewhat odd for a collector like myself to actively collect cards of the Red Sox's arch-rival. But, with the seemingly endless number of Yankees cards out there, it's pretty difficult to avoid them. 

Whether you're opening a pack or making your way through a dime box, Yankees cards seem to be everywhere. After all, there are my Yankees cards listed on COMC than any other team, and I believe that to be a fair representation of all the cards out there to collect. 

Regardless, the abundance of Yankees cards has resulted in some pretty major cards making their way into my collection, either via a pack of cards or a direct purchase at the Baseball card show or online. 

As a result, this Red Sox fan has been left with a plethora of various Yankees cards, some of them even proving to be among the best cards in my entire collection. Today, I'll be taking a more in-depth look at the greatest Yankees cards that I own.

To commence this Yankees-centric post, I have a classic-looking card of one of the most underrated pitchers of all-time, Whitey Ford. Despite career stats that include a 2.75 ERA, 45 shutouts, and nearly 2,000 strikeouts, Ford isn't as widely recognized as other Yankees legends that you'll see later on in this post.

I have an older card of Whitey Ford from the 1958 Topps set, but the condition and the centering are pretty lackluster. Because of that, I went with my 5.5 Beckett graded card of Ford from '66 Topps instead.

The grade may not be the best, but this 1958 Topps All-Star card of Mickey Mantle is tied for the oldest Mantle card in my collection. Personally, the 2.5 grade doesn't matter as much given how fabulous these original All-Star cards from '58 are. 

My original look at these classic All-Star cards was from the 2007 Topps Heritage set with guys like David Ortiz and Albert Pujols. Nothing can truly compare to the originals, much less a Mickey Mantle card from this memorable set.

Tied with the previous card for my oldest card of the highly-collectible Mickey Mantle is another card from the 1958 Topps set, this one a World Series Batting Foes combo card, showcasing 2 of the greatest hitters in Baseball history.

Because base cards tend to possess a higher value than combo cards like the one above, the Batting Foes card isn't as valuable as Mantle's iconic base card from '58. Still, this card has been in my collection as long as I can remember, so you can definitely say I've grown attached to it. 

Even though I understood that the card wouldn't receive a high grade, getting this card graded was an easy decision to preserve this fabulous piece.

Finishing up with these combo cards, here's the final big one in my Yankees collection, this one from the wood-bordered 1962 Topps set. Originally, I had 2 of these graded, and I sold the one graded at a 4 on eBay. I saved the other card, graded at a Beckett 5, because, like the '58 card, it features 2 of the greatest players in Baseball history.

It certainly would be a "Managers' Dream" to have either one of these guys on your team, and it's still pretty surreal that I even have this card in the first place. Similar to the World Series combo card from '58, this card has always been a part of my collection. Getting it graded at a 5, however, was something totally unexpected.

In terms of my major modern-day Yankees cards, the best place to start would be the cards that were most recently added to my collection, a quartet of printing plates from the 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection product. 

An entire set composed solely of Babe Ruth cards, Leaf did the best that they could without licensing rights and created a memorable and unique product. However, I didn't pull these 4 cards from a pack of cards. 

Rather, I grabbed this 4-card lot from a vendor at a major card show last year for a very fair price. At just north of $15 per card, this will go down in history as one of my greatest Baseball card show finds of all-time.

And as a result of that very same card show, I added this unbelievable card to my collection, and for the very first time throughout this entire post, the card I'm showing is one that I pulled myself from a pack of cards.

Though that feat will become more common over the next couple of cards that I show, pulling this Mickey Mantle warm-up jacket from a pack of 2010 Topps 206 was incredibly surreal. I certainly wasn't expecting anything close to this good to come from the box that I opened. 

It was simply supposed to be a fun and relatively inexpensive box break, and I ended up with a card that could pay for the entire box that I opened and then some. At some point in the near future, I could see myself submitting this card for Beckett grading as well.

Another card that I pulled from a pack myself, this one from a $10 rack pack of 2017 Topps Chrome, we have this Aaron Judge image variation rookie, a card I've likely shown here on the blog before today.

Back in August of 2017, Aaron Judge was at the peak of popularity, even making the cover of the 2017 Topps Chrome set. Because of that, everyone was looking to cash in and pull a valuable Judge card, including me. I just didn't expect that hit to come out of retail.

Flash forward roughly 1 and a half years and that card is now graded at a 9.5 and is easily the greatest Judge card that I own. Certainly, Topps Chrome retail was kind to me in 2017, and the same could definitely be said for the 2018 set as well.

If the Judge image variation was a major hit, I don't even have the words to express what this Gleyber Torres autograph pull meant to me, especially since I pulled it out of a blaster of Topps Chrome at last years' National in Cleveland. 

Numbered out of 250 copies, this Torres card is a purple refractor auto of one of the biggest rookie names of 2018. I made the decision to get this card graded as quickly as possible, while at The National, and I'll definitely be holding onto this stellar autograph, hoping Torres continues to progress as a talented and young player.

But honestly, none of these cards can truly compare to the beauty that is this 1962 Topps graded Mickey Mantle card, the one and only Topps base card of Mantle that I own, graded at a 3.5. Like all the other vintage cards showcased on this post, this Mickey Mantle card didn't receive the highest grade for the same reason that many vintage cards fail to do so as well. 

Even though the condition is obviously important for vintage cards, it doesn't matter all that much to me considering the fact that, like the rest of the cards shown above, I'll be holding onto this Mantle card from '62 Topps and not selling it.

If I wasn't convinced beforehand, this post did its job and changed my mind. All of a sudden, I'm not so certain that having too many Yankees cards is such a bad thing after all.

That still doesn't mean I like the team, though.

Dollar Cards & Oddballs; Card Show Recap #15 Part #2

If the Tribe-unal combo card above, possibly one of the greatest combo cards I've ever seen before in my life including cards from the '60s, was any sign as to how the rest of yesterday's baseball card show was going to go, then I was beyond excited to continue navigating my way through the vendor tables.

I was accompanied by my Dad to the Mansfield show yesterday, though I can't say we spend all that much time together while we're there. As soon as we arrive, we tend to go our separate ways, allowing each other to pursue what we like.

At the very end, we regroup and take one last look around together before heading out, double-checking to see if there's any last thing we want.

So, while I was searching through the dime boxes for player collection cards, my Dad was finding cards of his own that he liked, mainly $1 cards with a few oddballs and dime cards thrown in. This post is some of what he was able to track down.

I've started to become the main player collector out of the 2 of us while my Dad is more of a set builder or vintage kind of collector, more so than I am, at least. With that being said, he knows a good deal of the old-time players that we collect and even a couple of the modern ones as is shown here by the group of 2017 Allen & Ginter What A Day inserts that he picked up for 10 cents a pop.

One of the main reasons why I was ecstatic for the revival of Topps Gallery last year was that it would entail stupendous art like this being featured across an entire 150-card set. The 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Hand Drawn Art inserts offer vibrant artwork unmatched by nearly any set produced nowadays. 

One of the strong points of the 2017 set, I was surprised to see them left out of the 2018 Gypsy Queen product.

Collectively, my Dad and I are both pretty into oddball cards, especially when we can find them for player collections. Whether they're as well-known by collectors as Hostess and Kellogg's or more obsolete oddballs like Jiffy Pop from the late 1980s, there's always been room in my collection for unique cards such as these, even if I don't have a player collection (yet) for Robin Yount.

Before the revival of the company in 1981 and continuous releases through the year 2005, Fleer produced a couple years of intriguing cartoon cards commemorating the various World Series' beginning with the very first one in 1903. A couple of these sets were produced in the late '60s and early 70s, resulting in what you see above; 2 different cards with cartoons commemorating the 1951 Fall Classic.

It's relatively difficult to classify an oddball and differentiate it from, say, a card or set that you're unfamiliar with. Usually, an oddball type of set is a product not released by a major card producer with a lot of the oddballs being released by food companies either in cereal boxes or, in the case of Hostess, on Twinkie boxes.

That's why, although still unfamiliar to me, I would not classify the Babe Ruth card above as an oddball. While I'm still not sure what set it's from or what year, the card was made by Upper Deck meaning it's nothing that would stump baseball card collectors left and right.

The unknown card of Babe Ruth commemorating the historic 1936 Hall of Fame Class is not the only card in the bunch of The Bambino. A duo of bright yellow cards with the word "Superstar" was also picked up for a buck each by my Dad when he was looking around yesterday's show. 

Unlike the 1st card of Ruth, I'd count this one as an oddball since it's easy to see how collector's, including myself, would have no luck identifying exactly what the card is.

Babe Ruth's Gold Tier player certainly benefited more so than almost every other PC at the show yesterday with another oddball commemorative set helping to prove why. Among the guys in the checklist of this seemingly art-based set from the 80s is Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx, suggesting it could pertain only to Hall of Famers or 20s and 30s legends.

From Babe Ruth to the guy that's been compared to Babe Ruth for quite a few years now, Mike Trout's 3D card from a past Opening Day set was one of my pickups separate from all the dime cards shown in yesterday's post. 

After spending a good deal of my day searching through the dime bins, I began to look more for cards of selected players for a bit more money, and one of the guys I decided on was Trout, a player collection closing in on reaching 50-cards or the Silver Tier status.

Along with Mike Trout, Hank Aaron, one of my top 2 favorite players of all-time, is another guy that I'm always willing to track down cards of separate from the dime boxes. Located in the $1-$3 per card bin that I searched through was a 2015 Topps Gallery of Greats card, something that I believe to be a higher-end insert set though I'm not very well acquainted with it.

While it's easy to spend a dime or a quarter on a card of a player, spending a couple bucks on a non-numbered card isn't for everyone, and certainly not something I can do for each and every player I collect. Thus, it's necessary to narrow it down to a short list of players that you're willing to spend the money for, and one of those guys, for me, is Hank Aaron.

Willie Mays is another player I'm willing to spend a bit more on even though his player collection isn't at the totals that fellow 50s and 60s stars Ernie Banks and Hank Aaron are at. For whatever reason, I'm almost always incapable of finding Willie Mays cards in the dime boxes, as if it's impossible or something for his cards to be there. 

I recognize the 2nd card, 2013 Topps Cut to the Chase, though the first card of "The Kid" is from some type of set that I've never seen before in my life.

What I've been getting at is I'm only willing to spend more than a couple dollars on a card that sticks out to me or is something I've been wanting for a while. This could mean a lot of things; cards of my favorite players, numbered cards, 3D or oddballs, and last but surely not least, rookie cards.

Giancarlo or "Mike" Stanton as he was known back in 2010 and '11 is now a member of the arch-rival New York Yankees, meaning I can't necessarily be cheering the guy on or rooting for him at every turn. However, I have no issues with collecting cards from his days with the Marlins, especially if it's a new Stanton rookie to add to his PC.

Unbelievable Ruth and Mantle Cards; Card Show Recap #14 Part #3

As far as Red Sox fans go, I sure do collect a ton of Yankees players, leading to my collection having more Yankees cards than one would expect from a fan of the arch-rival team.

Whether it's old-time players like Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra or recent Yankees stars like Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira, I've always had some degree of respect for their organization and the standards they continuously set, and that's something exhibited through their players on and off the field.

With 27 World Championships, something I feel we're constantly reminded of, it's difficult to deny the Yankees' impact on the sport of baseball as a whole. However, I never really thought I'd ever invest a lot into Yankees cards or at least, not before seeing other options, whether online or at the show.

With that being said, Sunday's GBSCC show at Shriners Auditorium was an exception to this notion. The first 2 purchases, a mix of cards ranging from 10 cents to around 2 dollars each, guaranteed I'd be bringing home a wide selection of cards. However, it was time to look for something special to find at this once-a-year card show, and I'm proud to say I was successful.

Never before had I seen a Babe Ruth printing plate in-person, let alone thought about purchasing one. With printing plates typically being expensive and Babe Ruth being a highly sought-after player, I always assumed it'd cost me hundreds just to get one. However, I was proven wrong and at a loss for words at the same time at Sunday's show.

Since the 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection set consists of, well, all Babe Ruth cards, more Babe Ruth printing plates finally became available a couple years ago. Given how many cards were in this set, the prices fell just enough for them to be in my price range while also still having a fair value to them.

But wait, there's more?

Not only did these immaculate printing plates catch my eye, a hard thing to do at such a large sports card show, but they also happened to be for sale at a vendor's booth from the show I typically attend. More on that later. Both of these plates say "original Yankee stadium seat" at the very bottom, leading me to believe these were printing plates used to make the actual stadium seat relics from this set. 

If I'm, in fact, not mistaken, then these printing plates are even cooler than I once thought they were.

And if the first 2 weren't enough, try a printing plate of one of the Career Achievements inserts, 2,213 RBI, and finally, I was sold on these 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection plates. I knew I wanted to add these to my collection, double my number of printing plate cards, and cap off my dad's birthday weekend all in 1. 

I had never seen anything like these cards before. I mean, how often do you see 1/1 cards of the greatest player in baseball history? However, the half sticker price, which the dealer always offers customers, was still a bit more than I wanted to pay. Just for the hell of it, I asked him what he was willing to do for all the plates. His response?

Well, let's just say I ended up paying less than the price of a blaster box of cards per plate, easily one of the best deals if not the best deal I've ever gotten on such special baseball cards in my life. 

Just like that, I was able to add 4 incredibly unique, collectible, well-priced, and just downright awesome cards to my collection for a price I couldn't believe. With the purchase of these 4 cards, the number of printing plates in my collection rose from 3 all the way up to 7.

But somehow, the next card, pulled out of a pack, was the best Yankees card of the day. Although it wasn't a 1/1 or even numbered like the Babe Ruth plates, the title of this post implies this final special card is going to be one of Mickey Mantle. Here it is, a card already up there with the best pulls of my life.

If I was speechless about the Babe Ruth printing plates and their prices, I don't think there's a word in the English language to describe how I felt after pulling this Mickey Mantle warm-up jacket relic from a pack of 2010 Topps 206, hands shaking as I saw the name at the bottom of the card.

Quick backstory; we saw a box of 2010 Topps 206, a base set we're trying to build, at the same time as the Babe Ruth printing plates for an exceptional price. Since the set was still fresh in my mind and the 300-card base set was still fairly far away from being completed, we decided to cap off what had already been an unbelievable and fabulous show with 1 final major treat.

Around 7 packs in, I pulled what will likely go down as a top 5 hit ever pulled by me or my Dad despite the card not being numbered. A quick eBay search determined the card is going for around $75 which is quite a lot for a non-numbered card. Then again, it's Mickey Mantle, so it makes sense.

As a baseball card collector, having these 5 new cards in my possession is something I would never expect. Even as a die-hard Red Sox fan, it would be extremely difficult to give these cards up and sell them. In the case of the Mantle card, I pulled it myself out of a pack. As for the Babe Ruth cards, the story behind finding them at the show is one to remember.

And while I probably shouldn't spend a dime on cards 'till Christmas after this insane show, I wouldn't have it any other way.