2013 Panini America's Pastime

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Card Set: America's Pastime

Year:  2013

Card Number: 127

Card Type: Base

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 044/125

I just finally was able to get my hands on this one.  Panini's America's Pastime wasn't as high end as National Treasures, but it's still a pricey pack at about $225 and base cards are all numbered to 125.  Each box had one pack of 10 cards.  You got 1 book card, 3 autographs, 2 relics, 1 to 2 inserts, and 2 to 3 base cards numbered to 125 or less.  Each base card has 3 parallels.  The gold numbered to 25, the green foil numbered to 10 and the black 1 of 1 cards.

Robin's card in #127 in the set and while I give Panini some slack for not having the MLB license to use logos this picture is one of the worst I've seen used.  The overall design isn't bad, but this card looks more like something I would have pulled out of a food issue back in the late 80's instead of a $200+ pack of cards. And these are kind of hard to find. I'm guessing that not many people are rushing out to bust an expensive non-licenesed product.   But still a great addition to the collection.

2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Younts Gallery

This year's Topps' Gypsy Queen was released this Wednesday and Robin has a base card and all the parallels that go with that and an autographed card and those parallels as well.  Robin's base card is #3 in the set and he also made the framed parallel checklist. With blue framed parallels numbered to 499 and silver framed numbered to just one and there are retail white framed cards. I'll post images of cards when I find them.

Base card #3

Blue bordered parallel #d to 499

Sepia Mini #d to 50 front

Red bordered mini numbered to 99

graphite mini 1 of 1 front

graphite mini 1 of 1 back

Red Bordered Autograph #d to 49

Gold Autograph #d to 25 front

Gold Autograph card #d to 25 back

2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Memorabilia

Card Manufacturer:  Upper Deck

Card Set: Sweet Spot Classic

Year:  2007

Card Number: CM-YO

Card Type: Insert Relic

Relic Type: Bat

Sweet Spot was a great offering from Upper Deck.  A higher end product that wasn't so higher end that you had to blow you rent money to buy a box or pack.  And included in the set were some pretty cool cards.  

Of course there are always your run of the mill relic cards inserted too.  I'll take a bat relic with some nice wood grain over a single color swatch relic any day. Nowadays it seems like the only Yount relics begin put out are bat relics and soon we'll probably only be left with his golf shirts.  I really miss the Upper Deck style of cards, with the borderless full bleed photos and nice simple designs.  I always wonder why Topps doesn't use this style more or why Panini doesn't use this style at all.  Just a classically simple relic card.

2004 Topps World Series Highlights

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Baseball

Year:  2004

Card Number: WS-RY

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: World Series Highlights

One of my favorite Yount post career cards.  Just a great looking card in hand. It's shiny with a great picture and commemorates Younts awesome performance in Game 5 of the 1982 World Series.  For any Brewer fan the 1982 season was the crowning moment so far in club history.  It's also the reason so many Brewers fans like myself dislike the Cardinals, especially now that both teams are in the same division.

There is also a certified autograph version of this card that is high on my most wanted list.

1989 Topps 42 card rack pack with Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield

Card Manufacturer:  Topps

Card Set: Topps Baseball

Year:  1989

Product: 3 Blister Rack pack

I have a small collection of cello in the Yount collection.  I have a few packs I'll feature eventually, but I just picked up this 1989 Topps rack pack.  Not only did I get this for only 50 cents, it features 3 Hall of Famers on the front.  Would have been nice if Yount was in the middle so you could see his pretty face, but still a nice line up for rack pack.  Not really anyone of note except for maybe Drabek on the back.

2003 Topps Retired Signature Series

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Retired Signature Series

Year:  2003

Card Number: 62

Card Type: Base

My favorite Topps design from the 2000's is the 2003 set. I just think it's a well done layout. I love the inset headshot inside a baseball diamond.   I also love the blue borders of the flagship set and I love the fact that Topps carried over the design to it's Retired Signature release.  It was an interesting product. Each box contained 5 packs. Each pack had 5 cards that included an encased uncirculated autograph card.  Plus there were Black bordered parallels numbered to 99, Chrome Autos, and Chrome Refractor Autos to be had.

Here we have Robin's base card from the set. The base cards look really nice in that titanium white border. There's no room on the back of the card for anything but Robin's 19 years of stats.  I also love the great action shot of Robin from when he was still playing shortstop.  It's also interesting to note that the inset photo is probably the most used photo by MSA for a lot of the food issue and other oddball cards from the 80's.  Nice to see it with the Brewers logo on it for a change. It's also a nice touch that the back of the card has the Brewers colors featured.

2004 eTopps Classic Baseball

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: eTopps Classic

Year:  2004

Card Number: ETC49

Card Type: Base

Print Run: 1002

Note: Only available from the eTopps website, card is encased.

I featured this card a couple years ago, back when I got it in hand.  For those who don't remember the eTopps program, Topps had a website where they would issue exclusive cards every Monday. I remember that cards would go live at 12 noon EST, or 8am Alaska time, so I had my Monday morning routine down to check the website right as I got to work, because the issues or IPOs usually sold out within hours if not minutes.  During the life of the program Topps issued all sorts of cards depending on which sports licenses it had.  You could keep your cards in your account or when Topps actually produced them they were made available to ship to you.  Shipping was pricey and still is. You had the option of listing your cards on Topps' ebay trading floor, which is how Topps figured current card worth.  Topps shut down the program a few years ago, but the website is still up and portfolios are still there for now.  If current players met performance goals set by Topps you were awarded performance points which could be redeemed in the eTopps catalog for cools stuff, which usually sold out almost instantaneously.  Topps offered to allow you to use your performance points to pay for shipping when they shut down the program and I took advantage of it shipping every card I had that was available to ship.  That means I still have 15 or so cards in my portfolio.  Topps charges $12 for the first card and then something like an extra dollar per card shipped.  That a little steep Topps.  

Back in 2004 I was excited to see Robin get his own eTopps card. I ended up picking up two of these for my collection.  The scans really don't do this card justice. As with all eTopps cards these look incredible in hand.  And come encased and sealed with a Topps sticker. 

From 2002 to 2006 Topps issued 70 cards in this set.  20 in 2002, 2003, and 2004 and just 5 in 2005 and 2006. 

While this card isn't individually numbered like some of the later cards, according to the eTopps website there were only 1,002 cards produced, making it a fairly rare card.

2007 Upper Deck Premier: Premier Penmanship Autograph card.

Card Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: UD Premier

Year:  2007

Card Number: PEN-RY

Card Type: Insert Autograph

Insert Set: Premier Penmanship

Card Attributes: Autographed, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 69/74

I own a few Yount autos.  Not a ton, because they tend to go for a good price and prices for his autographed cards have definitely gone up in the last few years.  And that's great for the overall value of my collection, but that doesn't help in picking up new cards.  Anyway I picked this guy up a few years back and I'm sure I didn't get it cheap, but I can't remember.  And to be honest I had forgotten I even had this card till I was scanning in cards from the collection to post on here and for my own inventory purposes.  Sure I have this indexed in my Yount spreadsheet and on my Collection page, but sometimes you just lose track of this stuff. And that's a shame because this really is a great card and one I'm glad to have in the collection.  Yep it's a sticker auto, but a damn nice card and very low numbered. As a matter of fact these cards are numbered to the players rookie year and for Robin that was 1974.

This set was another super premium offering from Upper Deck with one 7 card pack per box.  But it was pretty loaded. As a matter of fact all but two of the cards were in the box were suppose to be relics, autos or auto relics.  So the base and rookie cards that come with it were sometimes a harder pull and those too were serial numbered.

2007 Upper Deck Ultimate: America's Pastime Gold Jersey #d to 25

Card Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Ultimate

Year:  2007

Card Number: PM-RY

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: America's Pastime Gold Game-Used Jersey

Card Attributes: Jersey Relic, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 16/25

I miss the competition in the baseball card market.  And I miss great simple relic cards like this.  Back in 2007 boxes of Ultimate were about $200 bucks and each box had 4 packs with 4 cards in each pack.  Each pack had 2 relics and one auto, on average.  I can't remember when I picked this up, but sorting through my collection I was struck by just how simple this card is.  The relic window is pretty small, but overall the design is appealing and the holofoil on the card makes it pop.  The baby blue swatch was a nice change up from all the white and pinstripe relics out there.  Of course being numbered to 25 and being the gold parallel you'd expect something more exciting for the relic though. The America's Pastime shield is a nice touch.