2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #62

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: Baseball Heroes, Heroes

Card Number: 62

Card Type: Base

Continuing our series for Robin's 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes cards we have #62.  Card 62 celebrates Robin's first and only Gold Glove Award from the 1982 season.  I don't know if the photo used could get anymore 80's.  Baby blue uniform and flip up sunglasses!

2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #61

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: Baseball Heroes, Heroes

Card Number: 61

Card Type: Base

Upper Deck's 2005 Baseball Heroes is another one of those sets that has a little something for everybody and a lot of it.  It seems that almost every set had a rainbow of color parallels, insert, and just odd variations that really aren't that well documented.  This set also features players on multiple cards in the base set and Robin was given 5.  So much like my series with his 2008 Sterling base cards I'm going feature all of Robin's 2005 Baseball Heroes cards in a row.   Every base card in this set is paralleled by multiple color parallels and those parallels have relic, autograph, and relic autograph parallels.  That's a lot of parallels.

Ahem.  Let's get on to the post.  Robin's base cards in the set are #61-65.  Each card celebrates a different aspect of Robin's career.  

Card #61 celebrates Robin's second 4 hit game in the 1982 World Series.

Yount By the Numbers - January 2016

A quick run down on what's available on the two biggest card marketplaces currently.
Over at COMC there are currently 900 card for Robin listed for sale.

The cheapest card is his 2002 Fleer Greats base card for 39 cents.

And his most expensive cards are still his graded rookie cards, but the next most expensive cards are:

2004 SP Prospects Triple Auto with Mark Rogers and Ben Sheets asking price $128.45

2002 Team Topps Legends Autograph asking price $120.25

And this new comer.

2015 Topps Strata Shadowbox Signatures #/25 asking price $100.45

Over on eBay Robin is featured in 10,078 listings.  Of those 8,223 are in the cards category.
The highest priced cards over there are also high graded rookie cards, but the first non-rookie card is this beautiful 2015 National Treasures true one of one asking price only $800.

Followed by this great 2012 Prime Cuts Quad auto of the HOF class of 1999. Yours for only $699.99 and $3.99 shipping.

One the low end are tons of card for a dime or less.  But the lowest priced card right now is this 2011 Gypsy Queen Great One's insert card currently bid up to just 1 cent with free shipping!

1992 Topps Gold

Year: 1992

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship Baseball

Card Number: 90

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Gold Foil Parallel

If you were to closely study the evolution of baseball cards tracing it back you'd find 1992 was a pivotal point to where we are today.  When you look at all the different color parallels spread out through Topps' and Panini's products their origins can all be traced back to 1992 and more importantly to 1992 Topps Baseball.  This set, or more accurately the gold foil insert parallel set is the locus where that evolution starts.  For better or worse it all started right here. And let's not forget we as collectors ate this up.  The early 90's was also a time the hobby enjoyed huge popularity and card companies were taking notice.  

Robin's 1992 Topps card is great for so many reason without the gold foil embellishment, but Topps uses just a little to make the card pop.  Had this been a few years later the yellow border would have probably also been gold foiled as well.   While I'm all about the great action shots this is a great candid portrait of  Yount the elder statesman sitting in the dugout with the bat cubby behind him.  By this time in Yount's career there's no room on the back for anything but stats.  1992 also marked the year Topps switch it's card stock from the old heritage brown cardboard to the sterling white.  While the basic design of the 1992 set can been seen a little simplistic the gold foil parallels really did add something to spruce the cards up and it's a great looking set in a binder.

1983 Topps Stickers #145 and 146

Year: 1983

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Topps Stickers

Sticker Numbers: 145 and 146

Sticker Type: Base

Breaking my own rules featuring two stickers at once, but with a pair like this it has to be done.  I mean if I just featured sticker #146 we'd be looking at Robin's butt. 

Robin gets 5 stickers in the series. It doesn't hurt they went to the World Series the year before and Robin won his first MVP award.  Stickers 145 and 146 form a larger complete picture that was featured in the Record Breakers section of the '83 Sticker Album.  I've found some images of the pages below.

Here is a bonus page with Robins #150 sticker in place.

2005 Donruss Throwback Threads Polo Grounds Ball - Grounder to Pitcher Out insert

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Throwback Threads

Card Number: PG-97

Card Type: Insert parallel

Insert Set: Polo Grounds Game

Parallel Version: Ball - Grounder to Pitcher - Out

Card Attributes: Serial numbered

Serial Number: 21/45

I don't think I've had an insert or an insert set so intrigue me as this one.  I totally missed this release and 2005 was a year I was super busy.   But I do remember seeing these in 2008 when I had time and was pretty heavily buying on eBay.  I wan't sure what the heck they were, but they were low numbered and it looked like there were a lot of cards to chase.  

For those who don't know this insert pays homage to the 1914 Polo Ground game cards and came out of 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads Baseball.  A set I'm pretty sure I never opened a pack of.  All of the card are pretty similar, they use the same photo on the front and same image and numbering on the back, the only thing that changes is the call and action on the side.  From a quick glace over at the Trading Card Database, Robin has over 50 different versions.  The most common numbered to just 85 to the most rare at 15 copies.  

A really cool insert from a year that saw a ton of inserts, parallel, and variations.

1990 Donruss Best of the American League

Year: 1990
Manufacturer: Donruss
Set: Best of the American League (Best of)
Card Number: 22
Card Type: Base


If you bought any 1990 Donruss, and I did, a lot, you probably got sick of it, which I did.  I don't really have any affection for the set.  I even nicknamed it the vomit set, since it kind of looks like someone spit up all over the border.   But Donruss put out a few other sets in 1990 and by then collector's were looking for something other than base flagship cards.  Fleer and Topps had been putting out small 44 card boxed sets for a few years and of course we got those lovely boxed update sets.  Donruss ramped it up a little with two 144 card boxed sets in 1990, one called Best of the National League and on called Best of the American League.  Both set used the 1990 card design, but changed the borders to blue.  I've also seen these sets just refered to as Best Of, or Best of the AL or NL.  I guess you'd have to know what league the player was playing in to know which set you had, unless you had a checklist somewhere since both sets were numbered 1 to 144 and no where on the card is does it tell you what set or league it's from.  The age of parallels and variations would start for a few more years, but it's too bad because I could have seen a whole rainbow of color parallels for the 1990 Donruss set,  neon yellow and pink, this was the early 90's remember, etc.

It's also nice they used different photos for this set and the Learning Series.  To be honest I think if this had been the flagship color I might have liked the set a little more.

1984 Fleer

Year: 1984

Manufacturer: Fleer

Set: Flagship Baseball

Card Number: 219

Card Type: Base

Oh Fleer, you plain Jane of baseball card sets.  Simple is probably the nicest and best way to describe Fleer sets.  However the card does feature a nice fielding live action shot of Robin. And of course we get the nice multicolored stats on the back, with a little room left over for a nice Did you Know? section.  It is kind of odd that all the personal stats were placed way down on the bottom instead of up by the player name.

1993 Topps Finest

Year: 1993

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Finest

Card Number: 192

Card Type: Base

We are lucky that Robin played long enough to be in the inaugural release of Topps Finest. From what I've read Finest was a huge success and I guess we can infer that since Topps has been putting out a Finest set ever since. But back then there weren't 18 types of refractors there was just one and it was super popular.  As a matter of fact Baseball Cardpedia states that it's estimated that there only 30000 base cards for each player produced and about 241 refractors.  That base allocation may seem like a lot, but remember this is 1993, the height of overproduction where card companies boasted that cards were limited to just 100,000 copies!

By today's standards this card isn't rare.  But it's refractor parallels are and are highly sought after, As a matter of fact collector Phil Gold has a website documenting his hoarding quest and realized real time prices.  Robin's refractor goes for about $70 raw and almost $250 for a graded Mint 9.

Me I'm a simple man and I'm more than happy to just have Robin's base card.  Although I still keep my eye out for a reasonable refractor. 

1992 McDonald's Baseball's Best

Year: 1992

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: McDonald's Limited Edition Baseball's Best

Card Number: 17

Card Type: Oddball Food Issue

I love food issued cards, and these are pretty top of the line.  Back in 1992 if you bought stuff at McDonalds you got a little cellophane pack with 5 cards, eat enough and you could eventually pick up the whole set. I don't remember this promotion at all, although I most likely was still living overseas when it was going on.  The checklist really was a who's who of baseball's best at the time and if you collect a superstar from the early nineties he's probably got a card in this set.  1992 also marked a time when Topps was starting to use foil to make their cards pop and it's used in this set to highlight the limited edition and the players name and McDonald's logo.

A very nice looking card, but not overly rare, COMC has 7 with the lowest price being about 75 cents.  It's also nice that this was a fully licensed product so we get logos and Robin's full stats on the back.

1988 Topps Rack Pack

Year: 1988

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship Baseball

What: 3 blister rack pack with Yount on front.

I don't know if I need anymore 88 Topps around the house, but I did pick up a new addition to the collection and one of my collecting goals this year.  I couldn't pass up a lot of 8, 1988 Topps rack packs for a buck, plus shipping was very reasonable.  I'll probably just try to resell the other packs or offer them up for trade eventually.  But there was only one pack I really cared about and it was this one. It's a nice bonus that there's also a Joey Meyer Future Stars card right next to Robin's.  The only thing that would have made this better would have been if Robin was featuring in the center blister.

2012 Panini Prizm - Green Retail Prizm Parallel

Year: 2012

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Prizm

Card Number: 147

Card Type: Color Parallel

Parallel Set: Retail Green

Note: Not serial numbered

This is the second card I picked up from the latest wfbookman ebay auction.  2012 was the first year that Panini did a baseball version of Prizm.  Prizm of course is the evolution of the original Pacific Prism sets of yore and is Panini's Chrome brand.  I remember that 2012 Prizm didn't go over that hot.  Maybe it's because a lot of the images look like Robin's card here.  It's a very ugly card and the main color parallels  were only found in retail, with the very sought after Gold and Black Finites (#/1) being found in hobby along with the base prizm refractors.  There were 3 retail color parallels, red for Target, blue for Wal-mart, and green for everywhere else.  I'm not sure if the green parallels were available in packs sold at Target and Wal-mart as well or were reserved for other retail markets.  Anyone know?  

But other than Robin's base Prizm refractor I rarely see these color parallels come up for sale and that seems odd given that they're not numbered and were widely available at retail markets.  Maybe it's because collector's shy'd away from it.  

If you couldn't tell I'm not a big fan of this set either or this card.  It looks like a super-premium food issue card from the 80's.  The uniform colors are off, but I'm sure that's done for legal reasons, you do get some sense of a background, but it's all blurred out, and the over all card design really isn't that appealing.  That being said the green shininess is pretty awesome and I like that the card is labeled as a Green Prizm on the back.


 Besides Robin's base card this is the only other Prizm card I have of his.

2015 Topps Tribute Jersey Relic

Year: 2015

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Tribute

Card Number: TR-RY

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Tribute Relics Base

Relic Type: Jersey

Card Attributes: Relic, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 035/199

Fresh out of the mailbox.  One of my latest additions from ebay seller wfbookmen.  The seller Jon has a fairly regular Yount mega selection.  Sometimes it's a little overwhelming, but I've learned that I can't have everything and usually will focus on a couple cards or oddball items and take advantage of his generous combined shipping.

This marks the first of any 2015 Tribute cards to make it into my collection.  You may remember Topps recalled this project last year due to quality control issues with the autographs.  Topps has finally re-released it, but at an insane configuration and price point.  Anyways I still have yet to pick up any of Robin's base cards from the set, but I will.

The overall design isn't that bad.  It's been following this 1920's art deco style that Topps has been putting into Tribute for a while now.  I also like the fact that there is a little color on the swatch.  I remember back in the early 2000's when relic cards were really popular that the premium cards were the 2 color one's like this.  Now a days if it isn't a patch swatch it's really just filler.  But I'll take my new Yount relic,  This is the base relic numbered to 199, like all products these days there are lots of color parallels to chase.

Baseball Cards Magazine - Sept. 1990

Year: 1990

What? Baseball Cards Magazine with Robin on the Cover

Date: Sept 1990

One of my goals this year is to add more Yount reading material to the collection.  As it is I have a few magazines and programs, but it's an area I have a ton of room to add to.  This gem comes from 1990 and I can remember buying this right off the rack.  I've mentioned this before, but my father was in the Army right up until I graduated High School and his last post was in Berlin, Germany.  I worked on the compound that housed the commissary, PX, Burger King, and bookstore.  So on my way home from work, I worked at Burger King in high school, I would stop by the base bookstore, which was close to where I picked up the bus to my housing area and peruse the comic books and magazines.  Baseball Cards was one of my favorite magazines to pick up and I was pretty religious about picking up the newest issue.  I still have most of them squirreled away somewhere. The bookstore didn't get Beckett, so this was my price guide and it had great articles.  Plus the magazine was the thickness of a small towns telephone book.  It was full of mail order advertisments.  This issue was great for a couple of reasons.  First of course it features Robin on the cover and secondly there is a great checklist for Robin that's not too shabby for 1990 and a great article.  Baseball Cards also had baseball cards!  In every issue there were 6 cards, two 3 panel sheets inserted into the magazine and this issue featured rookie cards of Sammy Sosa and Robin Ventura. (Sorry I didn't scan them)

I really do love those old mail order ads and looking at what stuff was going for back then.  Crazy what some of the prices were.

Here's the obligatory look what Robin's rookie card was going for in the price guide.

Beating George Brett in 1990!

2005 Upper Deck Origins Old Judge Blue Framed

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Origins Baseball

Card Number: 120

Card Type: Insert Color Parallel

Insert Set: Old Judge

Color Parallel: Blue Framed

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 08/50

Not to be confused with the 1990's Rookie Signature set, Upper Deck was jumping on the vintage nostalgia bandwagon that Topps started in 2002 with it's 206 release.  This insert pays homage to the N172 Old Judge set from the late 1880's.  The insert comes in a rainbow of colors with the base Old Judge having a green border.  Besides the blue version here, numbered to 50, there are red, gold, black, and the base green.

2016 State of the Blog Address

Man I am getting some great mileage out of that Bazooka One-Liners card.  One of these days I'll have one in the collection.

Anyway, a few days ago I took a look back with my year in review post, now it's time to look ahead with the my State of the Blog post.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can get back posting cards.  I don't plan on any huge changes to the blog or my collection.  As of right now my count sits at just over 1050 items.  I would like to add about 100 new items to that list.  I also need to go back through my master spreadsheet and my collection and make sure I haven't missed anything.  I don't know if I'll be able to top the 167 posts I managed last year, but that's alright it was a nice pace and I'm glad I had a nice mix of cards, news, and other stuff.  I'll also be keeping track of any new Yount cards this year and I've already started a 2016 checklist page up at the top.  And with Topps releasing the preliminary Series 1 checklist Robin already has 6 cards on that list!

All in all not too much will change on the blog, from my collecting stand point I do plan on focusing on periodicals that Robin graces the front of.  I do have a few in my collection and those will be featured this year, but after trying to put a checklist together I realized just how many magazines, newspapers, books, and other materials he's been featured on, especially about the 1982 World Series, his second MVP season in 1989 and his landmark 3000th hit in 1992.  I also want to add a little more cello to the collection.  More specifically unopened packs that feature his card on the front.  Again I have a few in my collection, but I think I'll try to add a few more.

Alright not too painful or thought out, but there it is, now back to our regularly scheduled postings.

2016 Topps Series 1 - Robin gets some love

Topps released is preliminary 2016 Series 1 checklist. They haven't assigned card numbers to the base set yet, but it looks like most of the inserts are there and Robin has quite a few cards to chase.
This is just a heads up and a preliminary checklist.  Once the set comes out I'll do a checklist and gallery post for his Series 1 cards.

Head on over to Cardboard Connection or Beckett for more details.

Back 2 Back #B2B-8 Paul Molitor - Robin Yount
Berger's Best #BB-26
Berger's Best Autographs #BBA-RY  #/25
Berger's Best Autograph Relics #BBAR-RY #/10
Scouting Report Autographs #SRA-RY
Team Logo Pin Relic #TLP-RY

Year in Review

Wow hard to believe the year is really over.  This year flew by.  All in all a pretty good year. This has been the first summer in a long time I've gotten to stick around home for most of it.  Got a trip down to Wisconsin for my brother's wedding and a trip down to Indiana for my wife's family Christmas.

On the posting side I've reached some big blogging milestones on this blog. While most of my other blogs have really suffered from my general malaise in the overall trading card world, my passion for my Yount collection has really kept me going.  It's been  few years now since I really refocused the blog on featuring every one of Robin's cards in it's own solo post so that I can link it to my collection checklist.  I have no intention of stopping that. As a matter of fact I have almost 400 items scanned and drafts ready to go.  I also blew away my previous yearly post total and if I had tried a little harder I might have doubled it.

I also decided to sponsor Robin's player page over at the Trading Card Database.  It's something I've wanted to do for awhile now, not just to promote the blog, but I also wanted to help support the database, as it's  one of my favorite card collecting resources.  I've also made it a mission to try and find as many images of Robin's cards I can to help archive them in the database and to correct and add any card information I find.

On the collection side I really haven't added that many pieces to the collection.  That's due to a couple factors.  One is available funds and the fact that I've reached a point where most of the cards I don't have in my collection are expensive relics and autos.  But I have managed to add a few great pieces I've featured recently.  As it stands the collection holds about 1050 items.  That includes everything, cards, magazines, drinkware, bobbleheads, etc.

The other aspect of the blog is collecting Yount card news. Whether it be new cards, like sorting our the Cooperstown inserts and base cards, documenting all the cards Topps put out in it's Archives Signature Series, keeping up with the fringe card producers like Leaf and Hits, or just finding out something new about something old, like Hostess cards. I want the Yount Collector to be that place that documents, archives, and educates the few of us who love to collect Robin Yount. But I also want it to be a tool if you collect other players and are looking for information on sets, maybe you'll gleam a little info from here as well.

I've also added a link list to other great player collection sites and blogs.  Like 4192 Cards that's all about Pete Rose, The Tim Wallach Collector, The Mark Grace Collector, The Junior Junkie, Collecting Sandy Alomar Jr., and Nachos Grande where Chris loves the Barry Larkin. That being said if you have a blog committed to a player collection drop me a line I'll add you to that list.

I've also kept a pretty up to date checklist with all of Robin's cards released this year and I plan on doing that next year as well.  With National Treasures pretty much being the end of the 2015 Baseball card releases Robin's card count stands at 251, but that doesn't include a bunch of cards from HITS, so when I can figure that checklist out I'll added it. I also updated the Trading Card Database with all of the different variations of the Brewers Police issue cards thanks to Tony L for the checklist of issuing towns and cities.  Right now Robin's total card count stands at just under 5000 cards.  As I continue to add and help correct checklists on the site I'm sure that total will over top the 5K early this year.

I'll have a State of the Blog post soon, yep another one of those.  Thanks for reading.