2020 Topps Five Star Silver Signatures Blue

Year: 2020
Manufacturer: Topps
Set: Five Star
Card Number: SS-RY
Card Type: Insert, Autograph, Parallel
Insert set: Silver Signatures
Parallel: Blue
Card Attributes: Autographed, Serial Numbered
Serial Number: 20/20

I just had this beauty arrive the other day. I had the good luck to pull a Kyle Lewis rookie auto out of Donruss Optic a couple months ago and sold it for a very good price.  Good enough that I was able to pick up this card and have money left over.  I'll be honest I got a surprisingly good deal on this card, but currently the market is flooded with autographed Yount cards and has been for the last couple years.  As is the trend the first few new autos tend to sell for a premium, but if you're patient and find the right auction well things like this fall into your lap.

Since getting married and having a child my discretionary spending has tanked, but I do try to add at least one new Yount auto a year.  That didn't happen last year as I took a year off of buying and selling on eBay, but have just recently started dipping my toes in again.  As a matter of fact I've got quite a few new Younts I've acquired over last couple months to show off.

Five star is always a favorite and how can you go wrong with a low numbered on-card autograph?  Plus I love the look of the silver paint marker used to sign this card.  It really makes it pop.  The Silver Signatures set comes in 7 different varieties with the base autographs being numbered to only 40.  And truth be told I would have been happy with any of the higher number versions, but I do love the color blue.

2020 Topps 1985 Topps Black Parallel

 Year: 2020

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship (Series 1)

Card Number: 85-61

Card Type: Insert, Parallel

Insert Set: 1985 Topps

Parallel: Black

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

As a card collector there are a few routes we can take to pick up new cards.  With the pandemic those options have been slightly reduced, but as a mainstay of the hobby eBay has been one of the main options for most of us for almost two decades.  I took a hiatus on eBay, both buying and selling for over a year, but just dipped my toes back in about a month ago selling a couple cards of some current hot players to turn those cards into cards I wanted.  For me the biggest hurdle about diving back into eBay was the rise in shipping costs.  As a seller I know how much a parcel is going to cost, so selling lower value cards really isn't an option for me anymore and the $4+ price tag for shipping on a lot of cards has really made picking up these lower value card less appealing as well.  But there are a few sellers that have embraced using the PWE (plain white envelope).  So if you're willing to take the risk of this cheaper shipping option it's not a bad way to go.

So the first card I picked up on eBay in over a year was this 2020 Topps 1985 Black parallel.  I've since picked up a nice handful of new Yount via eBay, one I'm really excited about that will hopefully be here by the end of the week.  But with a little patience I've been able to pick up some nice additions.

2020 Bowman Chrome Yount Checklist and Gallery

 I was very much to surprised to find Robin's name in the 2020 Bowman Chrome checklist.  Not that I'm complaining.  He's featured in the Farm to Fame insert set, which also has a couple parallels.  Oddly Robin spent very little time in the Minor Leagues in 1974 before being called up.

2020 Bowman Chrome - Farm to Fame #FTF-RY
2020 Bowman Chrome - Farm to Fame #FTF-RY Orange #/25
2020 Bowman Chrome - Farm to Fame #FTF-RY SuperFractor #/1

2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Ultimate Robin Yount Checklist and Gallery

 Once again Robin is featured in this year's Allen and Ginter and shares a rare dual autographed relic book card with Christian Yelich.  This also means we are going to see Robin again in Allen and Ginter X and maybe a chrome version of the product.

Here's the checklist.  I'll add images as cards start showing up.

2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Silver Portrait (Hot Box parallel)
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Glossy #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini A & G back
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Black
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Brooklyn Back #/25
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Glossy #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 No Number back PR50
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Framed Mini Printing Plate Black #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Framed Mini Printing Plate Cyan #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Framed Mini Printing Plate Magenta #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Framed Mini Printing Plate Yellow #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Wood #/1
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Metal #/3
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Mini Stained Glass #/25
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter #102 Framed Cloth Mini #/10
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter - Dual Autographed Relic Book (w Yelich) #DARBC-YY #/10
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter - Rip Card #RIP-100 #/75
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter - Dual Rip Cards (w/ Yelich) #DRIP-19 #d

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #1299

Year: 2009

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: 20th Anniversary Retrospective

Card Number: 1299

Card Type: Base

Today marks a milestone anniversary for Robin Yount.  On this day in 1992 Robin hit his 3000th hit and pretty much assured himself a place in Canton.  Topps has been putting out a retro Topps Now Turn Back the Clock set for a few months now and so far has only featured one Brewers, CC Sabathia.  My hope was today Topps would honor him in the set.  But alas they didn't, so let's honor him here.  Over the years Robin has been featured on many, many cards celebrating the 3000 hit milestone.  It took me a minute to find one I hadn't yet featured and had queued up. 

So today we have one of five cards featuring Robin in the massive 2500 card 2009 UD 20th Anniv. Retrospective set.  To be fair the set is kind of boring and all 5 of Yount's cards use the same photo with different captions at the bottom and small write-ups on the back.

2009 Topps Legends of the Game insert

Year: 2009

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: LG-RY

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Legends of the Game

I was just contemplating what the rest of this year's baseball products hold in store for us with new Yount cards.  Allen and Ginter comes out in about a week, with Panini Chronicles and Triple Threads  not far behind, all those sets could feature cards with Robin on them.  But I digress, it's been a pretty good year with a good amount of card across the spectrum on price point and attributes.  So let's take a trip back more than a decade to 2009 and the Legends of the Game insert.  The insert comes with two parallels, Gold and Platinum, as well as a relic and autograph versions.  Robin has cards in all those sets as well.  A nice photo that looks to have been taken at Spring Training maybe. The card celebrates, mainly, his 1982 MVP season and the Brewers only appearance in a World Series.

1980 Topps/MSA Pepsi-Cola All-stars (The oddest of oddballs)

First off I need to preface this post by saying I do not own this card and will likely never own a copy of this card.  This is one of those cards of urban legend like the 1977 Reggie Jackson Topps card featuring him as an Oriole and not airbrushed as a Yankee.  The story goes that Mike Schechter Associates (MSA), you know the guys responsible for almost all the early 70s and 80s unlicensed baseball stuff, and Topps put together a prototype to submit to Pepsico for a possible promotion.  According to the story they produced 3 full, front and back, sheets of cards to present to executives at Pepsi.  However the deal fell through and the set was never released and, except for the 3 sheets, never fully produced.  As the story goes, only 2 of the sheets were returned to Topps and supposedly destroyed, however the remaining sheet was cut up and the cards made their way into the public.  So if Topps and MSA produced full size sheets they would likely have 132 cards on them and since the set is 22 cards that would mean there should be only 6 cards of each player in the set floating around.

A recent auction at Mile High Card back in Oct 2019 sold a SGC 9.5 example for just shy of $2,500.  Interestingly enough there aren't any Topps or MSA copyrights or logos anywhere on the card.  But the card does use the same photo from the 1980 Topps set and some of the same front and back elements.  It's too bad this was never fully produced it's a good looking card and sadly one I know I'll never add to the collection.