Spring Fever pack full of stars, just none I collect

Yes, spring is finally here.

That means plenty of baseball cards to start hitting the market. Along with that is Topps’ Spring Fever promotion. This year, collectors can get the cards by going to a card shop and purchasing 16 or so packs of Topps Series 1.

Or, you can go to an awesome card shop.

I managed to get some Spring Fever cards. While they look like last season’s cards, there is a holofoil type of sheen to them, which makes them much better looking in person than they are in the scans.

Of course, I didn’t pull a Derek Jeter card. Instead, I got some of these other guys. I am definitely not complaining about the players I pulled from the silver packs. 

I did manage to get a former Yankee. Seeing Robinson Cano in another uniform still stings. He's a great player and Brian Roberts just doesn't stack up. 

This wasn't the only photoshopped card in the batch. There is no way Topps managed to get the pictures of these players so quickly. Here's Prince as a Texas Ranger.

Along with the Trout, I did manage to get a player that didn't need any new uniforms. 

Those palm trees look good right about now.

Tanaka makes MLB debut, but no stranger to collectors

Masahiro Tanaka makes first Major League debut against the Toronto Blue Jays tonight.

The Yankees new starter doesn’t have any MLB cards, yet, but Tanaka does have cards available for collectors. Tanaka has at least 50 cards on the market, including three autographs. Of course, many of the cards are from Japan, but a handful are more readily available

Tanaka’s cards appeared in 2009 World Baseball Classic subsets such in Bowman Chrome, Topps Update, and Topps Chrome.

His cards appeared again in 2013 WBC sets such as ToppsTribute.

Even though he hasn’t pitched in the Majors yet, Tanaka’s cards aren’t cheap. Some of the Japanese cards can be had for a few dollars, but his Topps cards have commanded more money with base cards selling for at least $10.

Autographs and low-numbered parallels sell for hundreds.

Topps recently announced Tanaka’s first live cards would appear in Gypsy Queen, which comes out next week. It will also put Tanaka cards in 2014 Bowman with parallels, inserts and a Chrome mini. He will also have cards in Topps Archives and Topps Series 2.

Panini, which has an MLBPA license but not an MLB Properties license, announced Tanaka will be one of the subjects in the Donruss wrapper redemption program.  

Of course, I have none of these cards – that I know of. 

My newest Jeter additions, but not as nice as Jeter's new gifts

Derek Jeter got his 1st retirement gifts tonight. They're a little weird.

Derek Jeter got his 1st retirement gifts tonight. They're a little weird. http://t.co/Yr3aM2yeqK (via @BuzzeronFOX) pic.twitter.com/lvYS55nuMN

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 3, 2014

He got pinstriped cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a set of new golf clubs.

I got three new Jeter cards on the same day.

My newest additions come from 2014 Heritage -- a set I don't collect. But as we already discussed, I still collect cards from set I don't care for because it's a player collectors sickness.

Here's the funny thing about these three Jeter cards -- they are all rare-ish. I got the Jeter short-print action variation, the Purple Refractor and the Chrome Refractor, numbered to 565. But you see, I didn't get a base card or even the regular Chrome. So, at least this will make my Heritage chase a little easier -- and cheaper -- the rest of the way.

My first attempt at grading cards

I made my first attempt at grading cards several months ago.

I call it an attempt because I didn’t go as well as I hoped. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed though because I didn’t grade the card to sell. These cards are not leaving my collection, and I had them graded to put in protective cases.

However, I still wanted good grades!

I thought I looked over the cards well, checked centering, the corners and edges. I didn’t see any marks on the surface. I thought I had 9s or better.

Turns out, it takes better eyes than I have to find good grades.

The only one I knew wouldn't get a top notch grade is the card pictured above. The 1993 SP Rookie Card is a must-have for Derek Jeter collectors, but when I took this card out of the protective casing I bought it in, I noticed surface scratches. In this case, I just wanted the "authentic" label on it so it could protect the card. 

Here are some of my other grades. 

1993 Upper Deck RC Derek Jeter

 1993 Topps RC Derek Jeter

1993 Stadium Club Murphy RC Derek Jeter

This one received the best grade of all the Jeter RCs I sent in. 

1993 Select RC Derek Jeter

1993 Pinnacle RC Derek Jeter

This one really hurt. I felt I definitely had a 9 on this one. But, I didn't notice a slight surface wrinkle on the back of the card, which pushed the grade way, way down 

Not all my graded cards were of Jeter. Here are two Rookie Cards, a 2001 Upper Deck MVP Ichiro and a 2001 Bowman Jose Reyes. 

I saved the best for last. 

2001 Bowman RC Albert Pujols

I do have a second batch of graded cards. I did slightly better on those, but that's for another post. 

Petro for three!

Since Derek Jeter has announced his retirement, people have asked what am I going to do with my collection.

Answer: Nothing.

Jeter cards are still going to be produced for years and years. Obviously not at the clip they are being made now, but maybe that might just help me catch up and find some of those cards I’m missing. I have more than 2,000 unique Jeter cards, but there are 14,412 listed in the Beckett database. So, the search will continue.

I can’t just start a new collection of someone where there isn’t a connection. I started collecting Jeter because he was the face of the New York Yankees all those years ago and I was an impressionable kid in high school. He seemed to do it all.

I am still working on collections of guys who are retired and long gone for the game.

One of those collections built up this past week when I went on a spending spree on eBay. I picked up 11 new Drazen Petrovic cards. Not all of them are old. Panini has created new cards of Petrovic in recent products, which lets me know there will be plenty of Jeter cards produced in the near and far future.

It’s neat to see older players on modern cards. That’s one thing Panini has done right with basketball– incorporating retired players into its products. Although, now we get to chase all those parallels.

Here are the Panini Prizm Hall Monitors I picked up along with parallels.

There were also these modern cards of Petro. 

I couldn't go all modern. I picked up some older cards I didn't own: 1992-93 Topps Archives.

And also a couple of Rookie Cards

1990-91SkyBox

1990-91 Hoops

Group Case Break Update

We are still trying to fill the teams to break a case of 2013-14 Panini Contenders Hockey.  If we can fill almost all teams/majority I will place the order but I can't do that unless we get much closer since it's quite an expensive case.

Here is where we stand so far on teams:

Rangers- Marie
Oilers - Suzy
Avalanche - Waxtopia
Penguins- Matt
Leafs -Wayne
Canadiens - Wayne
Red Wings - Dennis
Panthers - David
Blues - David

Please spread the word so we can fill this, and if you want a team just leave it in the comments.  Payment will be due once the order is placed and like previous breaks this will happen live with the video available for viewing later if you can't watch live.

Donruss adds to a player collector's sickness

Something other than Topps – that’s the way I feel about Donruss, Panini’s newest baseball offering.

The product is OK. I've heard mixed reviews on it. For me, I miss logos, but at least I have an option when it comes to buying baseball cards.

I didn’t buy any boxes or packs of Donruss, but I didn't need to because I have a sickness -- playing collecting.

Even if a product doesn’t have an overall appeal, you still need to get your player’s cards out of a set.

I managed to snag five Jeter Donruss cards from a dealer who breaks cases.

I thought the base design was solid, a little throwback, but it didn’t really factor much in either direction for me.

My favorite part of the cards was actually the backs – very old school. I like it.

The one thing I wished was different were the Diamond Kings cards. I didn’t like the real photos used as Diamond Kings are art cards. I would have liked Panini to use the same type of elements on the new Diamond Kings as they older ones.

And, of course, there are always parallels.

Anyone else grab any Donruss? What did you think?

Group Break Idea

We are thinking about doing a group break of 2013-14 Panini Contenders Hockey and we're wondering how many of you would be interested.  The sell sheet shows it is packed with hits per box and would be a fun break.

We are estimating the cost per team to be $48 including shipping to the US and $50 to Canada.

I will be picking the Rangers and Suzy the Oilers.  If you are interested and can commit to this please leave your team in the comments and you can send PayPal once we see how much interest we have.  If we get close enough to 30 teams, perhaps we can split the difference of teams not sold to cover the cost and decide what to do with hits from those teams after.

Let us know what you think.

Insert clever title here

I remember back when I used to buy cards and immediately log them into an Excel spreadsheet then put them away.  Nevermind, that was all a dream.  I used to buy piles of cards, boxes of cards, and let them pile up to the high heavens and then work on putting them away.

Who cares?  Yeah, that's exactly my point.  I have been back into buying cards since last summer or so and they have been accumulating on my desk since.  I have a stack of McDonagh cards and various other Rangers in a stack, and on my floor an empty binder that was purchased who knows when to put them in.  Collecting is work as much as it is fun, unless of course you don't care about wasting money buying doubles and triples of things because you have no record of what you have.

A couple of weeks ago Sooz and I went to see Dave at the Baseball Card Store in Midland Park, NJ, and I bought a bag of cards.  They are still in the bag.  I haven't even looked at them.  I feel like this makes me a "bad" collector or that I waste my money since I clearly don't get the same enjoyment out of the work part.  

Surely I can't be the only one who does this all the time.  I wish I had an elf to help me.  Even if he was an angry elf.

That's all.

P.S. I am bored at work and this is what I am thinking about.  Stay tuned, I may have more random thoughts soon...

Looking for a little help

Marie and I chatted today and we both realized we needed a change -- no we are not going away again.

We need a new header to the blog. Since the inception of A Cardboard Problem, our collecting habits have changed. Marie collects more hockey now and I have branched into a bunch of other areas, including non-sports cards.

So, we need your help.

We collect and we write and we drive around finding delicious cookies, but we cannot design graphics. We are looking for someone out there to create us a new banner for ACP. We want it to incorporate the idea that we collect more than just baseball cards and also want something a bit more modern.

If you're interested, leave us a comment. I am sure we can work out a trade that in return we can send some cards.

Thanks!