2014 Topps High Tek Spiral Variation

Year: 2014

Card Manufacturer: Topps 

Card Set: High Tek

Card Number: HT-RY

Card Type: Base Variation

Variation: Spirals

I was digging around my draft posts  (I have a ton of cards scanned) and was surprised I still had one Topp Tek pattern variations I hadn't posted.  I'm still missing a couple variations in the middle of rarity, but I'm happy the two rarest variations are already in my collection.  That said the Spiral variation is not rare.  It's the second most common behind the base pattern.  I love that Robin was included in the inaugural relaunch of the brand.  I was a little disappointed how half-assed Topps was about it though. No pattern designation on the back and all the base cards are lettered instead of numbered.  Not only that but even the autograph cards aren't noted on the card labeling.  But I'm still a sucker for acetate.

2014 Topps High Tek Disco Refractor

Year: 2014

Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: High Tek

Card Number: HT-RY

Card Type: Diffractor Parallel

Parallel Set: Disco Diffractor

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 18/50

We are on card 3 or 8 from the Black Friday haul over at COMC.  I picked this card up for a ridiculously low price which made me very happy.  When the set came out last year I jump early at the rarest of the base parallel variations, but really didn't bother with the diffractors or autographs because they were going for well more than I wanted to drop.  But a little patience pays off.  I recently picked up the Gold Diffractor, also off of COMC, a while back.  And now the next rarest diffractor falls into the collection.  The base cards from this set look great in hand and I have to say the diffractors do too.  I'm a little surprised how well this card scanned.  You can really see the detail of the shards that make the diffractor.  I was little bummed Robin wasn't featured in this year's set as well and even more bummed not a single Brewer made the set.  Well that saved me money anyways.

2014 Topps High Tek Gold Diffractor

Year: 2014

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Set: High Tek

Card Number: HT-RY

Card Type: Base Parallel 

Parallel Set: Gold Diffractor

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 89/99

Another deal I got from COMC.  I was really glad I had a little credit sitting in my account when the seller put this up with a ridiculously low price.  The least rare of the diffractors the card looks great in hand and even scans pretty decent.

2014 Topps High Tek Base Wave Pattern

Year: 2014

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: High Tek

Card Number: HT-RY

Card Type: Base

Design: Wave Pattern

It's taken awhile, but I finally have Robin's base card in last year's Topps High Tek.  For a refresher the set consisted of 12 variations, 6 for the National League, and 6 for the American League.  This wave pattern is the base card for the American League set.  There were also diffractor parallels and diffractor autograph cards in the set, but they only paralleled this design.  This card comes by the way of COMC.  I've been slowly completing their challenges and building up store credit.  And slowly acquiring cards.  I've bitched about how deals are hard to find on the site now, but every now and then I was able to score some great cards at a great price.  This was one of those cards.  I ended up finally building up enough credit to pay for postage and decided the time was right to ship.  In all I had 10 cards shipped, 9 Younts and 1 Frank Thomas.  I'll be posting those Younts in the future.

I'm glad I can finally add this guy to the collection.  I already picked up the two rarest variations last year so now it's just filling in holes.

2014 Topps High Tek Wall Art

Just when I though I had put the 2014 Yount checklist to bed Topps goes and does something else.  

I got an email this morning from Topps advertising it's Topps High Tek Wall Art.  Topps has been doing Wall Art all summer so this didn't come as a surprise.  What might be surprising is that they are producing only one of each subject and Robin's on the checklist.  Or was. When I started looking through the website Robin's piece had already been scooped up.  Not that I would have bought it at almost $200.

2014 Topps High Tek Stripes Base variation

Card Manufacturer: Topps
Card Set: High Tek
Year: 2014
Card Number: HH-RY
Card Type: Base Design Variation
Variation: Stripes
Note: Rarest of the six variations



Once upon a time I was a pretty serious poker player.  And I'll be honest I was pretty good.  Good enough to win a trip to Vegas and make money in Vegas.  I don't play much anymore due to my limited free time, but when I was big into it I picked up Doyle Brunson's Super System book.  I don't know how many of you have read it, but pretty much Doyle lays down the basics and then tells you why he does something completely different.  It's kind of funny.  To paraphrase: you gotta use your gut.

Why do I bring this up?  Well I've been feeling I could write a book on the timing of buying cards on ebay.  And my first rule would be never to buy or go after the first one of something being offered it will almost always go for the  highest price.  So why would I go after, bid on, and win this card?

Had to go with my gut.

I have no idea how many of these striped versions actually exist, as a matter of fact I don't know if Topps will ever tell us. But knowing that these are the rarest of the rare base card variations, I had to try and snag one.  Because even if the first one might go for the most money, if they are that rare my chances of seeing another one in the coming months once the High Tek mass ripping ends might be few and far between.  As a matter of fact I've only seen one other one offered on Ebay and that guys wants $80 for it (he was trying to get $150 the first time he listed it).  I've seen some speculation that this design might be as limited as just 5 copies!

So how much did I pay for this super rare variation.  $11, well $11.25 plus shipping so right about $14.  Did I over pay?  I don't think so.  As a matter of fact after I won it I was scared the seller might back out. Because I thought I got a screaming deal.  This is one of those rare occasions you have to buck the trend and jump in.  The fact that actual print runs are still unknown helped me a lot.  It also helped that there are so many versions and variations and parallels that it's a little overwhelming.  It was for me at first.  But I realized that I'll probably be able to pick up the other 4 variations anytime.  I know at least the two most common I should be able to pick up much cheaper in a couple months with the market is still flooded with them, but these rarer ones it's now or probably never.

So here it is the rarest base variation for the American League in Topps High Tek.

2014 Topps High Tek Cracked Ice Base Varaition

Card manufacturer: Topps
Card Set: High Tek
Year: 2014
Card Number: HT-RY
Card Type: Base Design Variation
Variation Type: Cracked Ice
Note: This is the second rarest of the 6 design variations.



I was really excited to see Robin in this year's Topps High Tek.  I think it's because I do love the chase and that fact that early speculation on the set layout put estimates of possible cards in the in the 150's per player.  Of course after the set was released and we figured out what was really going on that number dropped down to the high 20's with some pretty rare cards.  The other big revelation was that instead of every player having 12 variations, which was how a lot of us read the sell sheet, each player only had 6 and it was dependent on which league they played in. Also only the base design had parallels and autographed parallels.

After it was all said and done I'm pretty confident of my Yount Tek Checklist and I'm only a few cards images short for almost every example, I don't have high hopes for actually seeing the Galactic Charcoal 1 of 1 and even if it pops up chances are it'll be a crappy picture or scan.

But I was able to snag one of the rarer base variations.  According to Cardboard Connections this is the 2nd rarest variation.  What that exactly means I don't know.  I'm still waiting to see exactly how rare these base card variations are, but I figured I'd pick this one up while it was fairly cheap.

The scans really don't do these cards justice.  They are shiny and partially see through.  So I made a GIF.  While I don't have high hopes of picking up all the diffractors I am going to try and complete the base variation set and this is a great start.

2014 Topps High Tek Ultimate Yount checklist and gallery

I am going to attempt to try and keep track of all 144 base cards and autos. It doesn't appear that there is a guide or checklist out yet for each of the 12 base design variations or whether there are more than 12 designs spread out in the issue. Say there are 100 different designs, but each player only has 12.

I'm also not sure if the auto cards have design variations or just the parallels.  And from the few backs I've seen there isn't a design numbering system like the older issues of Tek so Robin's card number is HT-RY, but it isn't labeled design 2 or B or whatever.  So for my own record keeping I'm going to be labeling the base cards 1 - 12 and I'll put a label with it too, like wavy design, cracked ice, or whatever and keep the same numbering through for the parallel variations as well.  Alright here we go.  And I'll be adding images below as I find them.  Pretty much my ordering will be as I find the design I'll add it.

Right now my total card count is 155, but if the autos have pattern variations as well that number will go way up.  It'll be fun to see what we start seeing here in the next couple of days.  And if you want to suggest names for the patterns feel free.  I'm only listing stuff as I find it for Robin and not other players as I'm unsure if there are only 12 patterns total in the set.  Good hunting!


UPDATE:
 OK seems like we were a little misled by Topps and the sell sheet, although they didn't say there would be 12 base designs per player.  Ryan over at Cardboard Connection seems to have a handle on the layout you can read about it over THERE.

So it looks like there are 12 patterns, but there are split up into American and National League, with each league getting 6 and that some patterns are much scarcer than others.  Robin was lumped into the American League, I guess it could have gone either way.

So Robin has 6 patterns I've seen 5 of the 6, but I'll assume that he has a Circuit Board pattern too and I've listed the variations in supposed order or rarity from most common to rarest.

Only the most common card, the Wave Patter has the numbered Diffractor parallels and also is the only card featured for the autographs.  That brings us down to a total of 29.  Much more manageable.



HT-RY-1 - Wave Pattern
HT-RY-2 - Spirals (Rings)
HT-RY-3 - Laser Ice
HT-RY-4 - Circuit Board?
HT-RY-5 - Cracked Ice (about 1 per case)
HT-RY-6 - Stripes


HT-RY-1 - Gold Diffractor #/99
HT-RY-1 -Ice Diffractor #/75
HT-RY-1 -Disco Diffractor #/50
HT-RY-1 -Clouds Diffractor #/25
HT-RY-1 -Black and White Image #/15
HT-RY-1 -Red Storm Diffractor #/10
HT-RY-1 -Blue Dots Diffractor #/5
HT-RY-1 -Charcoal Galactic Diffractor 1/1
HT-RY-1 -Black Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY-1 -Cyan Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY-1 -Magenta Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY-1 -Yellow Printing Proof 1/1


Autographs
HT-RY - Base
HT-RY - Disco Diffractor #/50
HT-RY - Clouds Diffractor #/25
HT-RY - Black and White Image #/15
HT-RY - Red Storm Diffractor #/10
HT-RY - Blue Dots Diffractor #/5
HT-RY - Charcoal Galactic Diffractor 1/1
HT-RY - Black Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY - Cyan Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY - Magenta Printing Proof 1/1
HT-RY - Yellow Printing Proof 1/1


Gallery
Base

Base card Wave Pattern

Base Pattern Rings

Laser Ice Base Variation

Circuit board pattern

Cracked Ice Variation (saw it posted that these fall about 1 per case or so)

Stripes Base Variation

Cyan Printing Proof ft

Cyan Printing Proof bk

Here are all the base cards together in one nice grouping.

Parallels

Gold Diffractor Wave Patterin #/99

Ice Diffractor Wave Pattern #/75

Disco Diffractor Wave Pattern #/50

Cloudy Diffractor #/25 Wave pattern

Black and white parallel Wave pattern #/15

Red Storm #/10

Autographs

Wave Pattern Disco parallel auto front #/50

Disco parallel auto back

Clouds Diffractor Wave Pattern Auto #/25

Red Storm diffractor auto

Black and White Diffractor auto ft

Black and White Diffractor auto back

Blue Dots Auto #/5

2014 Topps High Tek - Holy crap that's going to be a lot of Younts

I was just perusing the checklist for Topps High Tek ,which is due out in a couple of days, and noticed that Mr. Yount again is being shown the love by being included in the base set and autograph set.

That's pretty significant as each base card has 12 variations and 8 parallels and 4 printing proofs.  That means if I did my math right there are at least 144 new Yount cards about to be released for this product just in the base cards and add to that 10 or 11 autograph cards. I'm not sure if the autos will have 12 variations as well or just be one card with parallels.

I'm waiting to add these to the 2014 Yount checklist, which will push the total close to 400 cards, until after I see how the checklist and cards are organized, because this is one issue that's going to be cluster to keep track of.