2013 Panini Cooperstown Gold Crystal Parallel

Year: 2013

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Cooperstown

Card Number: 97

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Gold Crystal

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 265/299

COMC Black Friday Haul #19

For me it seems Cooperstown was a set that always had one more parallel to find.  Well I can say that with this Gold Crystal parallel I finally have all the parallels, except the Black Crystal 1 of 1.

I was just reminiscing the other day that it's been quite a while since we've had a HOF dedicated set.  Not that I'm pining for another Panini effort, but it would be nice to see a very decent effort by Topps for such a set.  Maybe now that Topps' golden cow will be entering the hall we'll see one.

The 2013 Coopertown set wasn't bad.  Panini using black and white photos eliminated them having to skew the colors of player uniforms and the close cropped faces meant they didn't need to airbrush out logos.  Panini probably could have found a worse picture of Robin to use for his card, but they also could have found one a little better.  A nice touch on the back of the card having the box score from the 1992 game against Cleveland where Robin hit his 3000th hit.  And a great piece of trivia is that Cleveland was the team that Robin got his 1000th and 2000th hits as well.

2013 Topps Sticker

Year: 2013

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: MLB Stickers

Card Number: 206

Card Type: Base Sticker

COMC Black Friday Haul #18

It was just coincidence that I featured a card yesterday that had the exact same image on it.  I also pointed out in the post how over used this one image is.  I haven't been keeping track, mainly because I gave up caring about it, but Topps has used this and a few other images over and over again.  

Last year I made it a point to try and track down some of Robin's stickers that were missing from my collection.  Most of those were from the '80s and '90s, but I did finally pick up this modern 2013 sticker for the old collection.  

The overall stickers from the set had a very basic, yet visually appealing simplicity to them and of course the same over used image. I tried searching Getty Images to see if I could find this exact image and maybe some notes, but came up empty (although I didn't try too hard).  

Regardless even lowly modern stickers have a kings seat in my collection and I'm glad to have this one crossed off the needs list.

2012 Topps Triple Threads Flashback Relics

Year: 2012

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Triple Threads

Card Number: TTFR-21

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Flashback Relics

Card Attributes: Relic, Serial Number

Relic Type: Bat

Serial Number: 09/36

COMC Black Friady Haul #17

I picked up a couple nice relics of Robins this past year.  This card was by far the lowest numbered relic of the bunch.  Again this card was purchased months before the Black Friday event, but was included in my yearly shipement afterwards.  I can remember when these came out back in 2012 and thought they were really cool.  I love the double sided relic, although I'm fairly certain it's the same hunk of wood seen from both sides.  The card highlights Robin's nicknames at the start and end of his career.  Nicknamed the Kid when he broke into the majors, a nickname that has been shared by many players before and since.  And of course Rockin' Robin.  Both sides feature images that were very overused that year and have been since.

I'm not ashamed to say I paid just over $6 for the card.  To me that's  a great price for this very low numbered card of my favorite HOF player and to think this was a hit out of a $100 plus box of cards.  Seems I made out OK on the deal.

2019 Topps Series 2 150th Anniversary Commemorative Patch Card

Year: 2019

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: AMP-RY

Card Type: Retail Insert Manu-Relic

Insert Set: Professional Baseball 150th Anniversary Commemorative Patch Manu-relic

Card Attributes: Manu-relic

COMC Black Friday Haul #16

This year I picked up almost all my 2019 Yount cards off of COMC.  This is another one of those cards from the haul that was part of my big yearly shipment, but not actually purchased on Black Friday.  This card was picked up 3 days before the event, but I had a hard time passing it up for the price.  

Some people really hate these manu-relics, some love'em.  I'm very middle of the road and it really depends on the card.  Topps in the past has done some really nice manu-relics.  This one I'm not quite sure of.  These cards were blaster bonuses for Series 2 and the term patch is a little misleading or maybe just used wrongly all together.  The manu-relic really isn't a patch, at least in anyway I think of patches or swatches.  It looks to be made of plastic or foam.  It doesn't look terrible just seems kind of, well kind of pointless or maybe redundant.  That being said it most definitely has a place in my collection and the overall look of the card isn't terrible.

Topps 2020 Series 1 Robin Yount Checklist and Gallery

Continuing from last year Topps has included Robin in a bunch of the insert sets.  If this is any indication we should be seeing a lot of Robin again this year.

Here is the checklist, I'll update with images as stuff starts to pop up.


2020 Topps Series 1  #149 Legends Variation
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61 Blue
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61 Black #/299
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61 Gold #/50
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61 Red #/10
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball #85-61 Platinum #/1
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RY
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RY Black #/199
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RY Gold #/50
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RY Red #/25
2020 Topps Series 1 - 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RY Platinum #/1
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49 Blue
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49 Black #/299
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49 Gold #/50
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49 Red #/10
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best #DB-49 Platinum #/1
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best Autographs #DB80-RY #/25 (or less)
2020 Topps Series 1 - Decades Best Chrome #DBC-49 (Retail Tin Exclusive)

2015 Topps Archives Gold

Year: 2015

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Archives

Card Number: 32

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Gold

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 40/50

COMC Black Friday Haul #16

Patience. As far as card collecting is concerned I've learned to have a lot of patience.  There were days not too long ago that I would have jumped all over any and all parallels for Robin right when they were released.  It's a  conundrum at times, because the time you see the most of any one particular card, parallel wise, is at release, that's also the time when prices are highest.  As I've gotten older, married, and become a father, my priorities have shifted, as well as, my extra cash.  So I wait.  I'll probably harp on this a little more, but I quit eBay, both buying and selling early last year.  While eBay may still be the largest online market place for just about everything, the fees and predatory buyers made selling a hassle and the increase in postage made buying single cards even more expensive.  Hence why I've picked up the majority of new additions via COMC.  What does this card have to do with patience?  Well everything.  I sure didn't pounce on one of these low numbered parallels when the set was released and I still hadn't purchased one for over 4 years.  But patience paid off and I found this card for a great price a couple months before Black Friday.  It's another reason I love shopping on COMC.  While deals can be elusive at times, with a little work and patience they can be had.  

2019 Topps Faces of the Franchise

Year: 2019

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship (Series 2)

Card Number: FOF-16

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Faces of the Franchise

COMC Black Friday Haul #14

Last year Robin was featured in quite a few inserts in all three Topps Flagship series.  And of course those inserts, at least most of them, have parallels.  One of my favorite inserts from Series 2 is this Faces of the Franchise.  Since joining the Brewers in 2018 Christian Yelich has replaced Ryan Braun as the face of the current Brewers, at least on cardboard. I'm a big fan of this trio, however I would argue that Rollie is out of place.  If I would have put this card together Fingers would have likely been replaced with Braun, or if we're going old school Molitor.  Not that I'm complaining, as a Rollie Fingers collector I like cards that do double duty for my Player Collections, however if we go by All-Star Appearances Braun's 6 would supplant Yelich, but the write up on the back also highlights MVP awards and Braun's is controversial.  

On a side note I had though I had picked this card up with the rest of my team set from cardbarrel.com, but when I got the Faces of the Franchise card from them I notice it was actually the blue parallel and not the base.  It was an easy mistake since the only real difference between this card and the blue parallel is the top portion of the card is blue and pretty much the same blue as the bottom of this card, and it's unnumbered.  Regardless this was a cheap and easy pick up during COMC's Black Friday sale along with another parallel I'll feature later.

2019 Topps Online - Mini checklist

I thought I had put the 2019 checklist to bed, but totally missed this online exclusive set.  That doesn't surprise me as I had read somewhere this sold out very quickly.  The 2019 mini set was available by the 35 count box online and included all Series 1, 2 and Update cards as well as the 1984 inserts, and some new autographs.  I have seen some of Robin's 1984 Base and Update All-Star cards pop up on eBay and COMC.  There are also two parallels, Pink #/25 and Platinum #/1.

2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 #T84-32
2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 #T84-32 Pink #/25
2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 #T84-32 Platinum #/1
2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 All-Star #84AS-RY
2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 All-Star #84AS-RY Pink #/25
2019 Topps Mini (Online Exclusive) 1984 All-Star #84AS-RY Platinum #/1

2019 Panini Leather and Lumber Rivals Materials

Year: 2019

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Leather and Lumber

Card Number: RM-OR

Card Type: Insert, Relic

Insert Set: Rivals Materials

Relic Type: Jersey

Card Attributes: Memorabilia, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 082/199

2019 COMC Black Friday Haul #13

I picked up a few relics this year during the Black Friday sale.  One I've had my eye on for a while was a base version of the Rivals Materials insert.  I love cards like this that feature two players that some some history and Ozzie and Robin of course met up in the 1982 World Series, and it just so happens this card is serial numbered 82/199.  That's pretty neat and I'd like to say I noticed it before starting to write this post, but I didn't.  I chuckle a little bit because this set also takes me back to the late 90's/early 2000's when every product featured hits with plain swatches and the really desirable cards were the ones with a little color. Panini didn't bother to write anything about the match up on the back.

2002 Topps 206 Piedmont Black Back Pinstripes

Year: 2002

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: 206

Card Number: 289

Card Type: Mini Parallel 

Mini Parallel Set: Piedmont Black

COMC Black Friday Card Haul #12

I've written about my love of the 2002 Topps 206 set.  Well mainly series 2, and mainly the fact that Robin was featured in the set and had two base card variations.  At the time I was pretty enamored with the set because it was the first time I could remember Robin being featured in a base set of new cards, although that's probably incorrect, it was the first time I remembered seeing it.  And as a guy who collected Robin Yount cards I was super excited.  Plus it was Topps first attempt at the vintage tribute set and I liked it.  It also marked the beginning, yes I know Pacific had done it years before, but really this set marked the returned tobacco sized mini inserts.  Over the year's I've been slowly picking up the different backs and image variations featuring Robin.  As a matter of fact with this card I have only one mini card left to find to finish the quest.  Series 2 featured 4 different backs all with some differing rate of difficulty finding.  The most common being the Polar Bear backs and the rarest being the Carolina Brights.  Mixed in the middle were the Red and Black Piedmont backs.  And I'm glad I was able to find this pinstripe Piedmont Black variation to help get me one step closer to completion.  Now all I need is to find a Piedmond Red Blue Jersey mini and I'm done. 

1988 Panini Stickers #129

Year: 1988

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Album Stickers

Card Number: 129

Card Type: Base Sticker

COMC Black Friday Haul #12

Last year, sometime well before Black Friday, I had made a small push to find some of the 80's and 90's Panini Stickers I was missing.  Lucky for me COMC had quite a few for a good price and picked up a handful to add to the collection.  I'm not sure why, but I really like the overall look of these '88s.  Maybe it's the simplicity in the design, but we get a nice smiling head shot and sticker that has all the other requirements: player name, team name, and logo.  Bam.  Plus on the back Panini reminds us how to make collecting their stickers fun.

2019 Topps Allen and Ginter X Mini

Year: 2019

Manufacture: Topps

Set: Allen and Ginter X

Card Number: 352

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Mini

2019 COMC Black Friday Haul #11

I've never been a big fan of parallel products just for the sake of paralleling them.  Topps has been putting out the Allen and Ginter X set for a couple years now.  Personally I have no interest in the set other than for my team collection and player collections.  I am a huge fan of Allen and Ginter, or at least I was in year's past, seems A and G is getting a little stale.  But I do like the was these parallels pop and picking up for this mini and the base card during Black Friday was a boon for the Yount collection.

2019 Topps Stadium Club Red Foil parallel

Year: 2019

Manufacture: Topps

Set: Stadium Club

Card Number: 182

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Red Foil

2019 COMC Black Friday Haul #10

I can be very critical sometimes at Topps, but that comes when you've had the exclusive MLB license for trading cards for a decade.  But for all my criticism I always try to give credit when it's due and Topps has done an outstanding job with it's reboot of Stadium Club.  Since the product came back in 2014 they've done a great job at base card design and photo selection.  They also include a healthy checklist of veterans and HOFers in the base set.  Robin has been featured a few times in Stadium Club.  While I'm a big fan of action shots, I love this photo.  It's so well framed, Yount takes up most of the card.  The player and team name and Stadium Club logo don't get in the way.  Just an all around great looking card.  As with just about every Topps issue this card comes with multiple variations besides this Red Foil version.  But this is the first of the variations I've been able to get a hold of.

2019 Topps Fire Lasting Legacies Gold Minted Parallel

Year: 2019

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Fire

Card Number: LL-8

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: Lasting Legacies

Parallel Set: Gold Minted

2019 COMC Black Friday Haul #9

The emergence of Christian Yelich's stardom has really made him the go to Brewers for inserts and token representation in small sets now supplanting Ryan Braun.  Although I liked it better back in the late 2000's when Milwaukee had two recognized superstars in Fielder and Braun and they were in very thing, but I digress.  2019 saw Yelich and Yount paired up on a bunch of insert cards, and I'm ok with that.  Topps Fire is one of those sets either you love it or don't.  I'm not a big fan and these lasting legacy inserts are a little garish, but I do love the pairing and the imagery takes me back to the '90s.  Topps Fire was a Target retail exclusive, but every now and then I find packs at other retail outlets.  The Lasting Legacy inserts had two parallels and those parallels were product specific, with these Gold Minted parallels being found in blaster boxes and the other parallel, Blue Chip, being found in Fat Rack Packs.

2014 Panini 75th Anniversary Hall of Fame - Green Shield

Year: 2014

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary

Card Number: 83

Card Type: Base Variation

Variation: Green Shield

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 05/75

COMC Black Friday Haul Part 8

Panini's 2014 HOF set is a mess.  The base cards have mulitple variations and those variations have multiple parallels that are not easy to spot.  During the 2018 Black Friday event I picked up a bunch of Robin's cards from the set.  A lot of low numbered variations and parallels.  But misses this one.  This is the Green Shield base variation.  All the base cards are numbered to only 75 copies making them hard to find and each base card has 3 variations.  I was surprised to find this during my search during this year's Black Friday event, but I'm glad to finally add it to my collections.  You can see the full checklist breakdown here.    Now the only base card I'm missing is the Blue Shield #/75, which I'm sure will turn up somewhere for a good price or trade.

2005 Fleer National Pastime

Year: 2005

Manufacture: Fleer

Set: National Pastime

Card Number: 74

Card Type: Base

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 489/699

COMC Black Friday Haul part 7.

One of my goals during the COMC Black Friday sale is to hunt for hole fillers.  Throughout the year I'm picking up deals like more like a sniper.  One here, one there, whenever they come up.  I also start to build my watch list, cards I want but I want to see if the price comes down, or if I'm going on a larger shopping spree like on Black Friday have a list of cards ready to purchase, and hopefully get them at a discount.  During the sale I usually will do a quick sweep of my want list, buy what I want and then go hunting.  This gets a bit more involved, checking what I already have and seeing if I can find cards I don't.  I'm always surprised how many base cards get by me, but I'm always happy to add them for a decent price when I find them on COMC.  This 2005 Fleer National Pastime card is one of those cards.This base card is serial numbered and while 699 copies may seem like a lot today, even back in the mid-2000's a base card numbered to only 699 copies was insane for a product, especially since most of the checklist was not short printed.  Ahem, but I digress.  This was obviously a hits driven product with 10 pack hobby boxes promising two hits and there were some fun hits.  Robin also has featured pretty heavily in the buyback offerings that could be found in the product.  According to Baseballcardpedia this was Fleer's last big fancy release before declaring bankruptcy. 

2019 Panini Prizm Snake Skin Prizm

Year: 2019

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Prizm

Card Number: 216

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Snake Skin Prizm

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 32/50

I guess I better actually post a card I did pick up during COMC's Black Friday sale.  This year's Panini Prizm has insane amount of base card parallels, 27 according to the TCDB. I managed to pick up a few of those parallels during the sale.  The one I was really excited to get in had was this Snake Skin Prizm parallel.  While I'm not a huge fan of the set or the overly photoshopped and airburshed images I am a sucker for oddballs and I do love chasing down parallels if they can be had for a decent price.  This card covers both of those.  It's also one of the lowest numbered card I picked up this year for Robin.

2019 Topps Legends Variation

Year: 2019

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 676

Card Type: Variation

Variation Set: Legends

Continuing with my COMC Black Friday haul, another card not bought on Black Friday, but probably my favorite card of this year, maybe this decade, maybe of all time.  Let's not get carried away.  There's so much to love about this photo if your a Yount collector or a Brewers collector, hell it's a great shot of Ken Oberkfell.  The dust, the action, the lighting.  I found the original image over at Getty Images and they describe this photo of Robin attempting a double play in Game 4 of the 1982 World Series.  If it's not apparent I really, really like this card, it's also been, although slightly altered, my header for the better part of this year, and I haven't found anything I want to replace it with.

Plus the back is a sea of stats, as a back of a baseball card should be.  

I much prefer these legends variations to a lot of the other gimmicks Topps has thrust upon on us over the years.  For me it's a great way to add HOFers and retired players to the set.

Anyone else have a favorite card of the year.

1991 Panini Top 15 Baseball Canadian Sticker

Year: 1991

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Top 15 Canadian Stickers

Card Number: 56

Card Type: Base Sticker

Next up from my recent shipment from COMC from their Black Friday sale a very large Panini Sticker.  This is another card I didn't actually buy during the Black Friday sale, but rather I picked up this sticker and a couple others back in August.  These are called a couple different things.  The TCDB calls this set the Panini Canadian Top 15, and that makes sense as there is both English and French on the card, I don't believe there was an American equivalent.  There's a lot I like about this sticker.  First is almost baseball card size, so it's big.  Second, Panini using a great full color action shot of Robin.  And third, I like that big colorful 4.  I'm not positive so if I'm wrong I hope someone will correct me but with some minimal research I believe the #4 refers to Robin being in 4th place for Runs in 1990, and the 98 is the total number of runs, I assume RBIs, that Robin had.  The backs are pretty plain, but this after all is a sticker and the backs were meant to be thrown away.  And it was cheap so it's even better.  I'm slowly building and chipping away at my old Panini and Topps Sticker needs.  Anyone have any favorite baseball stickers?