2001 Upper Deck Legends - Legendary Game Jerseys Relic card

Card Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Upper Deck Legends

Year:  2001

Card Number: J-RY

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Legendary Game Jerseys

Relic Type: Jersey

I remember the early 2000's really well. I won't say I got out of collecting, but it definitely was not one of my priorities. Having moved from Wisconsin to Alaska and spending the majority of my time in remote locations working really doesn't lend itself to card collecting.  Coupled with that I was pretty much homeless living out of  my suitcase, or duffel bag.  But right around 2002, I started settling down and spending more time in civilization. It also happens to be the time I found ebay and started buying cards.  So I missed the Relic revolution, but I caught up pretty quick.  And this was also the time that Upper Deck, Topps, Fleer, and Donruss all started putting out HOFer and retired stars cards. 1999 marked the year that Robin would be featured on baseball cards again. It had been 3 years since he had had any cards issued with his likeness, but getting into the Hall of Fame will change that. The early 2000's were littered with relic cards for Robin.  Of course sets featuring retired players and HOFers were all the rage too like the Upper Deck Legends set.  In the early days pieces like this that had some color were a premium, of course if you got a piece of patch, holy moley! But any kind of color that helped the card stand out from the thousands for plain color swatches was pretty cool.  Those first few years on of my ebaying I really went a little crazy, but I added a lot of great Yount cards to the collection.  

Of course now we have to wonder if this is actually a game worn piece of jersey, but honestly that's not what draws me to the card.  It's the man featured on it and even if it was categorically proven that the swatch was fake I would still want this card in my collection.

1994 Donruss Special Edition parallel

Card Manufacturer: Donruss

Card Set: Donruss Baseball

Year:  1994

Card Number: 15

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Special Edition

In 1994 parallels were becoming all the rage. Sure Topps had had it's Gold parallel for a few years now, but now Score and Donruss were getting in the game.  And back in the 90's the parallel and inserts were all the rage.  Only 50 players per series, or 100 total were paralleled with a Special Edition card in 94 Donruss.  Robin had retired the year before, but we are lucky enough that Robin got a base card in just about all the major sets that year and was also featured on a Special Edition parallel.

On the special edition cards the name and team logo on the front were stamped with holofoil and the number on the back was marked with the Special Edition stamp and holofoil.

While these were very hot cards back in 1994, you can find most of this set at very reasonable prices.

Yount Tribute Checklist and Photo Gallery

I posted one of the rarer Yount cards I found on ebay a couple days ago. I figure I'd do a quick run down of the cards available and their variations and print runs.

Base card #39
Regular base (not serial numbered)
Blue  #d to 99
Green #d to 50
Gold #d to 25
Red #d to 5
Purple 1/1
Printing plate Magenta
Printing plate Yellow
Printing plate cyan
Printing plate Black

Tribute to the Pastime Autos
Base auto #d to 99
Blue #d to 50
Orange #d to 40
Sepia #d to 35
Yellow #d to 30
Green #d to 25
Gold #d to 15
Red #d to 5
Purple 1 of 1
Onyx 1 of 1
Printing plate magenta
Printing plate yellow
Printing plate cyan
Printing plate black

Tribute to the Throne Relics
Base Relic #d to 99
Blue #d to 50
Sepia #d to 35
Green #d to 25
Gold #d to 15
Red #d to 5
Purple 1 of 1
Printing plates?

Gallery

2014 Topps Series 1 Rookie Card Reprint Black Framed

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Baseball Series 1

Year:  2014

Card Number: 223

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Black Framed Rookie Reprint

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 006/199

I got my second 2014 Yount card in the mail yesterday. It's another rookie card reprint. I think by now Topps has probably issued as many  reprints of various types for Robin's rookie card as it did regular issue cards while he was playing. 

Regardless, I got this guy for a good price and from the chatter from other player collectors about these I did really want to add one.  These Rookie Card Reprints as the insert is called are framed and have 3 different levels. There are black framed cards numbered to 199, silver framed cards numbered to 99, and gold framed cards numbered to 25.

I will say this card is very heavy and very thick. I've included some reference shots below to show the frame and thickness.

As you can see it's about a quarter inch think, The frame might be metal but the front and the back of the card are not. It's too bad it would have been cool had the whole card been metal or like an enameled advertising sign.

I've had my eyes on the few Silver and Gold framed parallels, but  having at least this one for the collection I'm not too hell bent on picking up the other two, unless of course I find a great deal.

1999 Rick Rush "Hit and Run" Art Print Vignettes

 Manufacturer: Rick Rush

Card Set: Hit and Run

Year:  1999

 Type:Vignette

Serial Number 979/5000

A few years back I went a little crazy picking up different Yount collectibles. I had hit a wall with the cards at the time and I set my sites on other things like art prints and pins. One of the cool things I picked up was this Rick Rush Vignette. Rick is still producing great sports art and you can visit his website here.

The print comes with a nice folio. Here's the cover.

 The inside flap features a photo and bio of Rick Rush

Also Included was this Limited Edition Certificate and The Hit and Run write up.  

There are other more limited editions. There is the limited Serigraph that had an issue of 190, Rick's Price guide on his website lists those at worth about $3000 now.  There is his Millenium Series with 1000 issued and worth about $60.  The one I have is part of the Vignette release, numbered to 5000 and worth about $30.

I also have found that the original oil painting is being offered on ebay for $7500. You can view that auction here

One of these days I'll have a proper man cave and be able to frame and hang a lot of this stuff.  Still a great looking piece and really affordable. You can still find these on ebay, although the one up right now is a little pricey for the Vignette.

Cards I'll Never Own - 2014 Topps Tribute Black Onyx Auto 1/1

This card popped up on ebay a few days ago.  One of the new themes to the blog is to feature really cool, rare, expensive cards that I have no intention, means, or chance in hell of ever owning. As I write this there are still about 3 days left in the auction and the card is up around $150. I'm interested to see what it goes for.

Robin has a few cards in this years Tribute. He's got a base card, relic, auto, and all the parallels of those three.

You can check out the auction here.  (It went for $270)

2001 Fleer EX Wall of Fame - Wall Relic Card

Card Manufacturer: Fleer

Card Set: EX

Year:  2001

Card Number:NNO

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Wall of Fame

Relic Type: Outfield Wall

I think there are far too few relics of odd ball stuff like this. The market is clogged with relics featuring pieces of clothing and bats, but rarely do they feature piece of walls.  I think we need more wall relics, and seat relics and just oddball relics in general.  It's interesting that Fleer states it's a genuine piece of a Major League stadium, but they don't say which one. Or course we're led to believe this is a County Stadium relic, but who can really say. There's also the game date on the back of the card, the day Robin got his 3,000th hit, does that mean this is a piece of County Stadium wall taken back in 1992?  Sigh. Who knows, but still a well designed card and a cool oddball relic. And you know I'm a sucker for oddballs.  Another odd thing about the card it's not numbered or labeled for reference. No WF-3 or WF-RY. Fleer did this on a bunch of it's relics like this for a while.

1982 Topps SGC Graded Near Mint 88

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Baseball

Year:  1982

Card Number: 435

Card Type: Base

Attributes: Graded

Grading Company: SGC

Grade: 88 NM/MT 8

Years ago I was blessed by a fellow Yount collector, Matt, he sent me two huge boxes of Robin Yount cards, both graded and ungraded. You can read that post here from 2011. Needless to say it was one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given in my collecting career. It's also one of the reasons I also try and put a little extra into every trade package I send. As I've been revamping The Yount Collector, those gifts will be popping up from time to time, especially all the great graded cards I received.

But first I want to feature one more graded card I picked up way back at the dawn of this blog. This card goes with the Graded 1987 Topps I posted about earlier. At the time I was looking to improve the collection and one way I wanted to improve it was to get some quality slabbed cards. Sure I'd already have tens if not hundreds of a lot of these cards, but getting one graded was another story.  My quest didn't last too long. I can't really remember how many graded Younts I picked up in total, but this 1982 SGC graded one is another I remember very clearly.  I originally posted about it way back near the dawn of the blog, here.

I looked for a cheap PSA card and finding none I settled for this 88 SGC. I really like the way the card looks in the slab. SGC has the nice cut outs for the corners and the black insert really makes the card stand out.

1987 Topps PSA Graded Gem Mint 10

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Baseball

Year:  1987

Card Number: 773

Card Type: Base

Attributes: Graded

Grading Company: PSA

Grade: GEM MT 10

Sometimes I just get itch I can't scratch.  A few years back I just decided I'd pick up a few graded Younts for the collection.  With 1987 Topps having a soft spot in my heart because it was the first set I actively collected I searched Ebay until I found this beauty.  Not only was it gem mint 10, it was cheap.  For my collecting purposes I consider a graded card and a raw card as two unique cards.  

The scans don't do the card justice it really is a beautiful example and while you can tell its not perfectly centered it's pretty darn close. I probably have over 100 1987 Topps Younts laying around, but this is the only one that's graded.  I'll be featuring a lot more from my graded collection in the future too. 

1990 Publications International 50 Hottest Players 5x7 sticker

Card Manufacturer: Publications International

Card Set: 50 Hottest Players Stickers

Year:  1990

Card Number: NNO

Card Type: Sticker

The newest addition to the collection. The 1990 Publications International 50 Hottest Players sticker.

In 1990 PI put out a few different sticker sets and sticker albums, much like the ones Topps and Panini put out today. This sticker is much larger though measuring 5x7 inches and is blank backed. 

On the radar

I won't make you all look at that terrible graphic I put up last time I had new Yount news.

Anyway, Panini put out more teaser photos of inserts for it's Donruss Baseball release coming out in a few weeks. They had lots of examples of the new Diamond Kings, Studio and Team MVP inserts. And while looking through them I noticed that the Team MVP also featured lots of retired veterens and HOFers and one HOFer in particular.

 

 

I haven't seen a full checklist for the product yet, but at least we know that Robin will have at least one card in the release to chase and I'm not sure if these will be numbered or paralleled.

2014 Topps Commemorative Rookie Patch Card

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Series 1 

Year:  2014

Card Number: RCP-10

Card Type: Insert Manurelic

Insert Set: Commemorative Rookie Patch Cards

Note: Retail Blaster Exclusive

Swinging into 2014 we get 3 new Yount cards. 5 if you count some parallels. The first Yount card I've been able to pick up is this retail blaster exclusive Commemorative Rookie Patch Card RCP-10.  I don't think we needed another Yount rookie card reprint, but after getting this card in hand it is pretty cool.  The card border is actually printed on and the center photo is the only part that is the patch.

 Here I've tilted the card so you can see the area that is patch. I really like the that the baseball on the bottom right with the position is also die cut and part of the border.

I'm still looking to pick up one of the metal rookie card reprint cards and it looks like Robin's Trajectory Relic card is very short printed so it might be some time before I get that one as well.

1990 Sports Illustrated for Kids

Card Manufacturer: Sports Illustrated

Card Set: Sports Illustrated for Kids Insert

Year:  1990

Card Number: 127

Card Type: Base

Some times I miss the days of collecting in the late eighties and early ninties. I don't necessarily miss the overproduced junk wax. What I miss was the enthusiasm of the hobby. Back then there were literally dozens of magazines that catered to the sports card collector and many offered trading cards inserted into the magazine. And while Sports Illustrated for Kids wasn't aimed at the card collecting community directly it did offer bonus cards inserted into the magazine. Cards came  9 to a panel in each issue and you had to cut the cards out.

Here's a look at the issue the card came in. Wow that cover screams late 80's early 90's. You can still find these issues with the cards intact for pretty cheap. You'll probably end up paying more for postage than the magazine. 

1988 Topps Big

Card Manufactuer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Big

Year: 1988

Card Number: 66

Card Type: Base

The late 80's saw Topps putting out a few oddball sized sets. Some were mini's and others like Topps Big were slightly larger than your standard size baseball card. These cards measure 2 5/8 x 3 3/4 inches, and eighth wider and quarter inch taller. This made these cards a huge pain in the ass to display and store.

The set was issued in three series of 88 cards each for a total set size of 264 cards

 A funny story about Robin's brother Larry who's featured in the middle cartoon panel on the back. Larry was with the Astros and was announced as the reliever in a game in 1971. During warm up he experienced tightness in his elbow and never actually threw a pitch. And I do believe Larry Yount is the only Major League pitcher to never throw a pitch in an MLB game, and he never did make it back to the majors. So really while Larry did pitch in the minors with the Astros farm system he never really pitched for the team.