Trade List > Baseball > 2005

The following cards are available for trade. If you see anything that interests you, please feel free to drop me an email.

Bazooka: 9, 152 (3)

Bowman: 7, 74, 91, 145, 203, 249, 274, 305

Gold:
22. Wily Mo Pena, Cincinnati Reds
231. Danny Zell, Detroit Tigers

Bowman Draft Picks: 68, 74, 95. 125

Gold:
BDP86. Tommy Manzella, Houston Astros

Bowman Chrome: 10, 40, 41, 55, 74, 76, 92, 101, 129, 164, 173, 215, 223, 263, 273, 300, 316, 330

Refractors:
29. Ken Harvey, Kansas City Royals
162. David Aardsma, San Francisco Giants
321. Ben Harrison, Texas Rangers

Alex Rodriguez Throwback:
94-AR. Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

Bowman Chrome Draft Picks: 16, 56

Bowman Sterling:

BS-EM. Eddy Martinez- (Autograph) (3)

Donruss: 173 (2), 246, 249

Donruss Greats: 127 (2)

Fleer Authentix: 39 (2)

Fleer National Pastime: 7

Fleer Showcase:

Autographed Legacy:
23. Ben Sheets, Milwaukee Brewers (002/427)

Fleer Tradition: 335

Leaf: 159

Leaf Certified Materials: 2, 9, 14, 16, 17 (2), 22, 23 (2), 24 (2), 33, 40, 44 (2), 45, 53, 62, 63, 74, 75, 85, 96 (2), 99, 104, 106, 107, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 128, 130, 145, 148 (2), 155, 163, 167, 173, 182, 184, 192

Mirror Blue:
121. Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox (019/100) (GU Bat)

Mirror Red:
8. Andruw Jones, Atlanta Braves (056/250) (GU Bat)

Mirror White:
38. Dontrelle Willis, Florida Marlins

Certified Skills:
CS-19. Miguel Tejada, Baltimore Orioles

Fabric of the Game:
FG-10. Bo Jackson, Kansas City Royals (59/75) (GU Jersey)
FG-105. Rod Carew, California Angels (19/25) (GU Jersey)

Playoff Prestige: 63

Topps: 1, 8, 10, 12 (3), 13, 17, 21, 23, 26, 27, 35, 36, 41, 42, 46, 48, 53, 61, 62, 72, 78, 79 (2), 86, 88 (2), 98, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 118, 123, 130, 131, 136, 137, 140, 145 (2), 152, 155, 157, 164, 171, 178, 179 (2), 182, 186, 190, 191, 208, 209, 210, 211 (2), 212, 215, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 227, 236, 240, 245, 249, 251, 259, 260, 262, 265 (2), 271, 279, 284 (2), 285, 288, 291, 294, 300, 308, 309, 323, 335, 340, 356, 359, 363, 372, 392, 395, 412, 420, 423, 443, 452, 456, 459, 464, 466, 481, 483, 528, 563, 588, 592, 604, 621, 622, 632, 698, 718, 734

Gold:
209. Eric Young, Texas Rangers (0551/2005)
371. Charles Thomas, Oakland Athletics (0774/2005)
486. Bobby Madritsch, Seattle Mariners (0022/2005)

All-Star Stitches:
ASR-MA. Moises Alou (GU All-Star Jersey)

Barry Bonds Home Run History:
64, 81, 83, 116, 188, 212, 239, 284, 321

Declaration of Independence:
George Clymer
James Smith

Dem Bums
DB-DZ. Don Zimmer, Brooklyn Dodgers
DB-KS. Karl Spooner, Brooklyn Dodgers

Grudge Match:
GM10. Corky Miller, Cincinnati Reds/Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs

Spokesman:
ARII. Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

Topps All-Stars:
4. Jim Thome, Philadelphia Phillies

Topps Updates and Highlights: 202

Topps All-Time Fan Favorites: 119

Topps Chrome: 2, 3, 4, 9, 13, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27, 34, 35, 38, 40, 42, 46, 51, 55, 56, 57, 73, 75, 77, 82, 85, 88, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 100, 102, 105, 107, 108, 110, 116, 119, 120, 121, 123, 129, 138, 144, 147, 151, 152, 153, 160, 163 (2), 168, 169, 171, 173, 175, 178, 180, 184, 187, 188, 200, 209, 213, 219

222. Brandon Moss, Boston Red Sox (Autograph)

Refractors:
136. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies
188. Juan Gonzalez, Kansas City Royals

Black Refractors:
61. Al Leiter, New York Mets (060/225)
72. Bartolo Colon, Anaheim Angels (116/225)

Topps Cracker Jack: 33, 65, 89, 165, 169, 202, 218

Stickers:
86. Raul Ibanez, Seattle Mariners

Topps Rookie Cup: 4, 13, 39

Topps Turkey Red: 45, 50, 65, 71, 73, 107, 108, 110, 114, 122, 130, 144, 154, 212, 223, 225, 229, 261, 264, 269, 277, 278, 292, 301, 308, 309

Red:
100. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees (with glove) (SP)
169. Randy Wolf, Philadelphia Phillies

White:
274. Wladimir Balentien, Seattle Mariners

Upper Deck: 4, 5, 13, 57, 77, 103, 108, 122, 199, 208, 218, 236, 245, 274

Upper Deck Reflections: 7, 46, 99, 176 (SP)

Upper Deck Sweet Spot: 80 (2)

Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic:

Sweet Spot Signatures:
OC. Orlando Cepeda, San Francisco Giants

Upper Deck Trilogy:

Generations Past Signatures:
PA-TR. Tim Raines, Montreal Expos (154/199)
PA-DS. Darryl Strawberry, New York Mets (22/99)

Upper Deck Ultimate Signature Edition:

Signature Decades:
SD-BU. B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Topps Rookie Cup Comes to Life

And here I'd thought the Topps rookie cup was merely a cartoon doodle honoring the previous year's best rookies. Well, here's a card that arrived the other day:

It comes from 2005 Topps Rookie Cup Baseball. It's part of an insert set called Original Relics. They're strange beasts that I hadn't heard of until I stumbled across this beast. Basically, Topps appears to have started with a 1971 Topps buyback, which was promptly sliced in half. The window was cut out and the two halves were pasted onto a think card stock with the gold foil Rookie Cup showing. Talk about a Franken-card.

Cards in the set were limited anywhere from one to ten copies. This Morton, which will be going into my Expos collection, is a 1/1. It's even got the 1/1 hologram on the back that was fashionable back in the day (I'm not sure if they still are).

I'm not too happy that his first name was cut off the facsimile autograph, but this certainly is a unique concept and is a much more meaningful 1/1 compared to most. That being said, this is a gimmick card and one that I hope Topps just lets lie.

Random Card Duke-Out

Boxing Day is less than a week away. Hypothetically speaking, you're having one of those weird West Side Story dreams and you're about to go up against these guys:

Who are you going to have in your corner? Pope Benedict XVI or Hellboy?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Is This the Worst Sticker Autograph of All Time?

Browsing on eBay, I came across this card from 2005 Playoff Prime Cuts. The card design overall is very attractive. The alternating game-used pieces show that they're just not oversized single relics posing as a dual. It's got an all-time great. And it has an autograph.  What the heck is going on with that autograph?

I've got a few beefs with sticker autographs, but a big one is the fact that often they don't hold the entire signature. This is probably the most extreme example I've seen. It looks as though a good half of Aaron's autograph is gone, a victim to the edges. Add to that a bit of apparent smudging and you've got one immensely disappointing card.

Although I understand Aaron hasn't been of the greatest health in recent years, which would affect his signatures, it doesn't excuse Playoff for letting this one out there. It's called quality control. If something isn't at it's greatest, it should be removed from distribution. I feel bad for the person who pulled the card. It'd be great without the autograph and amazing if the scribble was even half an inch higher. But as it stands, ick!

Dufex Gone Bad - 2005 Donruss Zenith White Hot

About 99 percent of the time I love Dufex. It's got the right mix of warped shininess that screams 21st-century cardboard. Okay, maybe that's stretching it a lot but there's a definite "ooo, shiny" appeal to the technology.

Here's the ugly anomaly in my Dufex fanboy-ism: 2005 Donruss Zenith Red Hot.

 

That would be Ted Williams' image burning in Baseball Card Hell. The issue that I have here is pretty simple: red is bright, black and white photo is not, background is shiny. The result: Dufex purgatory.

Red Hot cards were inserted 1:16 packs with ten cards making up the set. The checklist doesn't really standout when you compare it with other small insert sets: Williams, Vladimir Guerrero, Johan Santana, Todd Helton, Alfonso Soriano, Aubrey Huff...

Aubrey Huff? Sure there's stars, but it's not a who's who, even back in 2005. But then the parallels tell the likely story. Yes, there's parallels to this ugly set. Random bat and jersey swatches were attached and serial numbered to anywhere from 25 to 300 copies.

But when a flame's orange, it can still get hotter. Bring on the 1:65-pack White Hot cards.

 

The background looks more "under the sea" to me than fire but I think it looks a little nicer. Still ugly but not Dufex purgatory bad. You know it's coming - memorabilia parallels. Yup, more bats and more jerseys.

So in case you were wondering, Dufex can be ugly. It can also be made uglier by lame parallels that are really just excuses to slap a jersey or bat slice onto a card.

The Last Inkworks Card

This arrived a week or so ago:

 

  

Oddly enough, I didn't know it existed until Inkworks had gone under and a dealer acquired their leftover inventory. Technically the autograph of Tony Jr. was never released. It never made it into packs and Inkworks never gave word that they were sitting on it. One would assume it was being held back for a follow-up to the Sopranos: Season One set from 2005. But that release was a bitter failure. Personally, I love it and have a complete master set including autographs. The response was so poor that a Season Two set never came out despite ambitious plans from Inkworks.

I was never a huge fan of Tony Jr. but I am happy that another Sopranos card has turned up. Who knows what other unreleased delights might surface after all the extra inventory is sorted.

Where's Fernando's Penmanship?

Biggest 'Manias' from the 1980s:

3) Wrestlemania

2) Hulk-a-mania

 1) Fernando Mania

Here's the thing, though. Wrestlemania just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Hulk-a-mania will never die, brutha. But Fernando Mania - it seems to have disappeared.

Fernando Valenzuela was one of baseball's biggest stars in the early part of the 1980s. Before he was old enough to legally buy a beer and drop a nickel in a Vegas slot machine he'd already won the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards. And that was in his first full season. For the next half-a-decade he was one of the game's brightest stars. With his excentirc windup and knack for the strike out, Valenzuela captured the imagination of the game's fans.

After setting a career-high with 21 wins in 1986, Valenzuela started his decline from superstar to falling star. Although he remained a fan favourite, he was never his dominant self for any length of time. Yet he managed to hang on, going from team to team and finding a way to stay in the Majors before being released one last time in 1997 by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Valenzuela's legacy today is one of being one of the game's ultimate fan favorites. Yet, when it comes to cardboard, he's hardly around. Despite the fact that we're in an age of nostalgia in the hobby, Fernando Mania is still something of a dot on a vast horizon. He's appeared on about 50 cards since 2000. While that might seem like a lot, when you think about all the parallels and inserts that come in modern sets, it's barely a blip. If you narrow it down further to premium "hits," the numbers dwindle further. While there's a handful of game-used bat cards, Valenzuela has a grand total of one certified autograph card. It's found in 2005 Sweet Spot Classics Baseball. With autographs in 2007 and 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum, friggin' Corey Feldman from The Goonies has more autographed cards inserted in baseball products.

 

While Joe Blanton, Andre Ethier, Noah Lowry and Tom Gorzelanny continue to have autograph after autograph released, this 80s icon remains one of the few names from the past that hasn't been milked. The reasons for the lack of Valenzuela autographs can only be specualted. Perhaps he's not a fan of signing things, maybe he charges too much, maybe he hates the picture Upper Deck used on his 2005 card, or maybe he's disappeared from the public radar. Who knows. There's currently just one of the Valenzuela autographs listed on eBay and it's got a Buy it Now price of more than $100. I think it's time Fernando Mania gets a little kick in the pants so getting an autograph can be a little more affordable.

Mega-Box of Joy from gcrl

From the on-going journey of catching up and checking in comes some highlights from the Mega-Box of Joy sent my way from gcrl.

There were

Expos looking to make the catch,

 

and others making the catch.

There was

 

 

Matt Stairs making a fool of himself and

 

Matt Stairs making a fool of himself (I think someone at Pinnacle Brands in 1998 hated him).

There was

 

famous Canadians and

 

not-so-famous Canadians.

Finally, there was

old set needs and

new-ish set needs of old guys.

Thanks, GCRL!

Now THIS is a Jersey Card

A couple of days ago Ben Henry over at The Baseball Card Blog wrote a thoughtful piece about how to make memorabilia cards interesting again. He argues - and I agree - that jersey and game pieces should be dated. It will create a connection between the collector and the card, something that is vital to keep people in the hobby and to bring new ones in.

For me it would also build some trust in the authenticity of said relic and that it was actually used by the featured player and not someone else on the team. For example, I have a 2008 Upper Deck Baseball UD Jersey of Melvin Mora sitting in front of me. The authenticity statement on the back reads:

Congratulations! You have received a Melvin Mora Game-Used baseball card. On the front of this card is a piece of memorabilia that has been certified to us as having been used in an official Major League Baseball game. We hope you enjoy this piece of MLB history as we continue to keep you as close as you can get!

Read through the legal language and it's not clear if the fabric is from Mora. It's also a piece of "memorabilia" so it could even be a piece of pant fabric. I don't really care because it's just another jersey card of a player I don't collect. Although I like them to a certain extent, there's nothing new about it. And that goes the same for just about every other jersey card out there.

A decade ago, jersey cards were cool. It didn't matter if they were plain white or blue, they were the thing to have. And if you got a pinstripe - GASP! Although I never could figure out why a White Sox or Yankees pinstripe was concerned rare considering pinstripes would make them more common. Maybe it was a Joe Collector thing.

The market was quickly saturated and even casual collectors found themselves with literally piles of plain grey and blue pieces of cloth. So in order to get us excited again, it was cards featuring multiple swatches. Then patches. Then multiple patches and jersey swatches cut to spell words. Let's face it - no matter how many swatches are on a card, if they're dime-sized and one colour, they're probably pretty boring.

That said, this came in the mail today:

Sure, it's plain grey. But look at the size of that thing. It actually is a jersey card. Better yet, UD CEO Richard P. McWilliam assures me on the back that this is a jersey swatch from Rich Harden. Yay! It's going to be added to my random collection of Canadians. Bonus points to Harden for being from my home town.

So plain jersey cards can be cool. I still wouldn't want more than a couple from any given player, but it's something.