- I like the green border, you don't see that color too often for borders (unless it's a parallel). Nice photo catching Brett on a follow through, instead of the all too often used throwing shots that you see.
- Bio on the back: "From his August 5, 2011 MLB debut through July 31, 2012, Lawrie led Toronto with 155 hits. A rib injury impacted his game the last two months of '12." Story of his career so far, when he stays healthy, he's a player. When the injuries creep up on him, it just kills his game.
- Career homer #48 was as a member of the Oakland A's, and was hit 6/5/15 off of Wade Miley of the Red Sox. It brought the A's to within 2, but they didn't get any closer as the Sox won 4-2.
- Robert
- The forgotten PC's: The last time I posted a card from a player other than Sakic or Thome on the blog? January 23rd. I thought that was a bit too long so I decided to do a two-fer of Brett Lawrie minis today.
- Whenever I've bought A&G, I always seem to have luck pulling the A&G minis from packs. Not sure if it's because they're so plentiful, or if it really is dumb luck.
- I heard recently that Lawrie re-signed with the White Sox. One guy I follow on Twitter wasn't too impressed. Hopefully Brett can stay healthy enough in 2017 to earn a long-term deal.
- Robert
- Certainly nothing noteworthy about this design. Topps didn't even put the team's logo on the card. The gold border would be used in later years for their numbered parallels, bringing a little more meaning to the color.
- This pose is also becoming standard practice for a Jim Thome card; front foot on it's heel, back foot on the toes, mighty follow through.
- 1999 Topps was also the smallest set for the company since the 50's, only 462 cards. Will never figure out why they did that.
- 6 copies of this card are currently on COMC, ranging from 99 cents to $1.25. A little pricey for an unlisted card for that year as Beckett shows unlisted cards at 50 cents.
- Robert
- I was worried about how the gold foil would scan. No worries anymore.
- I accidentally bought this card twice on COMC. The other one is awaiting sale, I'm hoping someone will need it sometime soon.
- Turns out I still need the 3 base gold cards from this set as well. I'm sure that they'll be difficult to find...
- Robert
- Actually had to increase the brightness on the scan in order to be able to see the writing on the card.
- The back of the card says "One of 5,000". But the card isn't serial numbered. Would have preferred that.
- Still need the Gold version of this card, which I believe are limited to 100 copies. There are none on COMC, but the one copy I did find on ebay was listed for $20 (not bad IMO), but is missing the serial number. That kind of worries me...
- Robert
- It's very tough to tell for sure, but in hand you can see the player just behind Joe is a Red Wing, and it appears that the number 19 is on the sleeve, leading me to believe that the player is Steve Yzerman.
- As I've mentioned before, need to take a better look at my cards. Never realized that this card is numbered 925/1000.
- The Bronze version (which appears later today) is listed at $5, and the silver multiplier is 1.5 to 2.5x. So a ball park of 7.50-12.5 on price. Good thing I don't have to chase these anymore!
- This card is post #450--just 50 more to 500. Still better than I ever would have imagined for this blog. I guess it's because I'm really enjoying these quick 3-4 line posts. I'm also taking a few seconds to actually look at the card at little more closely, a lot of times noticing or learning something new.
- Robert
- Love the silver "border" on the left hand side of the card and how it represents skate scratches on an ice surface. Definitely something a little different.
- Bio on the back: 6 of Joe's 18 goals in the 95-96 were game winning goals, at the time an NHL record. It has been since beaten by Brad Richards who had 7 game winners in the 03-04 Stanley Cup run by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- Could not find any listings for the Gold parallel of the MVP card, but the base silver is relatively cheap, ranging anywhere from 70 cents to $1.50 for the 6 copies currently on COMC.
- Robert
- Don't think in this case that Jim got all of the ball. He's looking straight ahead instead of up. Maybe a liner to center for a single?
- Bio on the back: First at-bat off the disabled list after missing six weeks with a broken hand, Jim hit a homer.
- Jim's '99 Finest card is listed in Beckett for a buck, the entire 300 card set is pretty reasonable at $60. This would be one of those sets that you'd be better off buying complete rather than trying to find singles on the cheap...
- Robert
- 4 different parallels of this card. Rink Collection, Foil, Artist Proof and Premium Stock. Overkill.
- One card I would really like to have from the 96-97 Pinnacle release is the Gretzky/Sakic Team Pinnacle card. Guess for $20 I can pick up the card here...
- Bio on the back: "Joe showed in 1995-96 why, on his draft day, scouts compared him to Wayne Gretzky. In 1995-96, he had 12 two-goal games and 36 multiple-point outings." Would love to know why if he was compared to Gretzky that Joe wasn't even the first player that Quebec took in the draft.
- Robert
- 2nd card of Thome in recent days where the card # matched his jersey number. Very cool.
- I've always loved the feel of the Ovation cards, the stitches made to feel like a baseball. Again, very cool.
- Career homer #173 came off of Brad Radke of the Twins, 6/29/99. It was his first homer as a DH in '99 and tied the game at 3 in the 5th. The Indians would score 2 in the 9th to emerge with a 5-4 win.
- Robert
- On the back, there is another shot of Joe holding the Stanley Cup. Also on the back it mentions that Joe won player of the week honors during the first week of the 96-97 season with 3g, 6a.
- Looking at the card when moving it from the binder to the scanner, I thought to myself "I hope that the SPx logo in the background shows up on the scan". Sure enough....
- There's one seller that has 6 copies of this card up for sale on COMC. All at $1.45. Overkill & overpriced, in my own opinion...
- Robert
- I collected a LOT of the MVP brand when it first came out. I have a silver signature parallel set on the hockey side to prove it.
- Bio on the back: "...had four homers in Cleveland's ALCS loss to the Yankees, giving him 12 career post-season roundtrippers." Jim would hit 4 more in the '99 postseason, and then his 17th and final post season homer would be hit in 2001. All 17 were hit with the Indians.
- 6 copies of this card currently on COMC, anywhere from 75 cents to $1.24. Card lists for 50 cents. You make the call.
- Robert
- To me, I think it's cool when you see a card and you think of another blogger and one of his collections right away. I'd bet money that Brett already has this card in his collection...
- Bio on the back: "Sakic's superb all around play in each round of the 1996 playoffs made choosing the Conn Smythe Trophy winner an easy task." Yes it did.
- 5 copies of this card currently on COMC. Cheapest? $1. Most expensive? $2.25. I know Joe is considered a star card, but when the guide lists this card at 30 to 75 cents, people need to get a grip. Just my opinion...
- Robert
- Hard to tell what logo that is on the player in behind Joe. Maybe the Sabres alternate logo from the 90's?
- Bio on the back: "...Sakic led the league in unassisted goals with nine." The season that Donruss is referring to is one of only 2 seasons where Joe scored 50 or more goals. It's also one of two seasons where Joe and the Avs won the Stanley Cup, so there's that.
- Goal #169 was the 30th of the 92-93 season for Joe, and was the first of 2 on the night against the Buffalo Sabres, 1/23/93. Joe had 3 points in a 4-3 win at home, and both of his goals that night came against Tom Draper of the Sabres.
- Robert
- Interesting how the mostly silver foil card scanned black. The silver-gray stripes scanned yellow. Card looks much better in hand.
- Figured I would start out the 96-97 cards of Sakic with a nice insert. There's a few cards that I have multiple versions of, so I decided on a single to start things off.
- Card is serial #'d 52/750, which is kind of limited for that time. They certainly aren't cheap on COMC as well; one copy is priced at $12.25, while the other has an asking price of $15.25. Don't ask me what I paid for mine, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that much.
- Robert
- The #70 isn't quite as big as the #25 that was featured earlier today, but it certainly stood out for me, so I decided to do a 2nd post today with the big number theme.
- I decided to look up this set to see how big it was, thinking it might be 20-30 cards. It was 90! There were some guys on there that represented a stretch for me to hit 70 in a season (Javy Lopez and Edgar Martinez to name a couple), so this kind of lost its luster a little.
- There are 3 copies of this card on COMC, ranging from 65 cents to $1.24. $1.24 seems to be a popular price on COMC, I'm not sure why....
- Robert
- Love this card, the giant #25 in the background is a big plus for me as it enhances the two photos on the front. Kind of like a monument to Jim (for lack of a better word).
- Bio on the back: "Thome became only the second Indian to hit tow home runs in a post season contest, joining Manny Ramirez". Wonder if anyone else has added to that stat since then...
- Decent price range on the COMC site for the 3 cards available; 84 cents to $1.24 is quite reasonable.
- Robert
- This is the reason I've been avoiding this card for the past couple of weeks. What a horrible scan!
- You tilt the card the right way, the NHL on Fox logo goes away. I would have been happy if the card didn't have the logo at all.
- It also kind of reminds me of my TV back when I was young and the picture quality/reception was poor. You'd hit the TV, or move the rabbit ears to try and get a better picture...remember?
- I don't believe that I own another card (PCs, Blue Jays or otherwise) that has a 7-11 logo on it. I know I have a couple of Hills store cards, but don't think that there are any other stores in the collections.
- Robert
- I don't have much info about this set, but I'm guessing that it was
released in box set form, similar to its baseball cousin. The first 45
cards feature players in their all star jersey, while the final 5 are
part of a subset call Members Choice, and feature the player in their
regular club jersey.
- In case you were wondering, the East beat the West in the 95-96 all star game by a score of 5-4.
- Speaking of all star games, Joe appeared in 13 of them scoring 6 goals and adding 16 assists.
- Robert
- Enhanced the brightness setting on the scan again to make the card a
little more bright. Still looks very gray instead of the silvery
chrome that you get in hand.
- I'm so used to the newer Chrome sets that are only around 200 cards
in size. Hard to grasp that this is card #380 in that set, which
probably cost a small fortune to put together back in the day.
- Case in point. The only copy of this card for sale on COMC is listed at $2.24. Yikes!
- Robert
- I actually enhanced the brightness setting after scanning the card so you could actually see something in the background.
- Bio on the back: "SKILLS: Strong as an ox...Launches low fast balls deep into the night...Tremendous batting eye." OK then
- Career homer #168 was hit 17 days after his last one, 5/16/99 off of Detroit's Masao Kida. This was a case of too little, too late, as the Indians were down 9-2 in the 9th at the time. Detroit won 9-3 on the back of Jeff Weaver's 6 innings and Kida's 3 inning save.
- Robert
- Like the design of this card. Bowman incorporated the signature portion that I always liked on cards over the years, even it is just a facsimile.
- Jim's name is a little tough to read though, with the scan turning the letters kind of black. Maybe if they had used the red on the player's name, similar to the Bowman logo in the upper left, the card would have scanned (and looked) much better.
- Career homer #167 was hit 4/29/99 off of Oakland's Mike Oquist. It was a 2 run shot in the 4th inning, and would be the decisive runs in a 8-3 win.
- There were three teams on 4/29/99 that would score 15+ runs in the American League. Anaheim destroyed Toronto 17-1, Kansas City beat the O's 15-5 and Seattle scored 22 in a 22-6 rout of the Tigers.
- Robert
- Bought a box of these back when it first came out. Never did learn how to play the game.
- There are 3 Sakic cards in the set. Still have to find the other 2.
- I like that you don't have to worry as much about dinged corners. With the semi-rounded corners, Playoff has already done it for you.
- 6 copies of this card currently on COMC. Price range anywhere from 50 cents to $1.15. Decent enough, no ridiculously priced cards on there....yet
- Robert
- Of the 9 cards on this page that I'm currently working through, this is the only card featuring Thome in a fielding pose. Guess even back then everyone knew what Jim's strength was.
- Bio on the back: "...ranked tied for seventh in the Majors with 40 home runs in 1997." Jim was actually tied for 8th in '97, with Jay Buhner, Vinny Castilla, Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza also hitting 40 apiece. Great company.
- Very glossy card both front and back, which made me think that it would list for more than it does on COMC. Cheapest copy of 6 is 49 cents, while the most expensive is a buck. Not bad...
- Robert
- Winding down the 95-96 portion of my current Sakic card collection. Scary part is there's about 3 dozen cards that I don't have yet.
- Bio on the back: He has made an art form out of holding onto the puck till the last possible second then delivering a "RAZOR" sharp pass." Not sure why Topps felt that they had to capitalize the word razor. I'm pretty sure that most people who collect hockey knew what the sentence meant.
- Cards on COMC range from 99 cents to $1.20. Much easier on the wallet than the platinum version, which has only one copy priced at $10.25.
- Robert
- Easily one of the sharpest cards I've showed featuring Sakic so far. The chrome scanned really well on this card, I was pleasantly surprised.
- This card still lists for $8 in Beckett, but I can remember back when it first came out you had a hard time finding a copy for under $20.
- Interesting range on COMC for the 3 copies available. The cheapest is $4.99. The most expensive is $22.75. Guess that person is still living in the 90's.
- Robert
- I believe that this is the first Black Diamond card I've shown on this blog. Well worth the wait. I know that I have a few each for both Sakic and Thome...
- Bio on the back: "On 5-6-98, Had a homer, four RBI and three runs scored in a 14-5 win over the Orioles." Not too shabby a day.
- Continuing on the home run theme, career homer #165 was the 2nd of the 1999 season for Jim. It was a 2 run shot on 4/11/99 vs. Joe Mays and the Minnesota Twins. That put the Indians up 9-4, and they wound up hanging on to win 9-8, their 5th straight win after losing the first game of the '99 season.
- Robert
- A very psychedelic feel to this card, almost looks like something you'd see when you're feeling the effects of a controlled substance. Not that I know how that is....
- Bio on the back: Players drafted before Thome. John Olerud (3rd rd), Ben McDonald (1st), Jeff Bagwell (4th) and J.T. Snow (5th).
- This card can be had for a reasonable price on COMC, just 59 cents from a couple of different sellers. Top price is $1.50, which still isn't too bad.
- Robert
- Judging from the scan, looks more like Black Ice, doesn't it? Card in hand is much better, it features a dark green front with the words "Emerald Ice" written across the bottom.
- It's certainly not as easy being a GM as it is a player. Sakic's Avalanche squad won their first game in a month last night. That's right, they hadn't won since January the 6th against the Islanders. Sounds like a #1 overall pick coming their way....
- Career goal #162 was scored 12/16/92 against their provincial rivals the Canadiens. Joe also had 2 helpers as the Nords won 5-1 in the Forum. Patrick Roy was the victim that night.
- Robert
- This is a very busy card to say the least. Kind of a departure from the regular Parkhurst releases from years past.
- The good ol' days: the 95-96 season saw the Avalanche have 11 players with 10 or more goals, including Joe's team leading 51. One of those 10+ goal scorers was Chris Simon, who potted 16 for the Avs, despite sitting in the penalty box for 250 minutes.
- The only copy on COMC of this card right now is listed for 99 cents. It's listed in Beckett for 50 cents. The lower end sounds about right.
- Robert
- Of the 4 colors that Starquest used (Blue, Green, Red and Gold), the green is probably my 2nd favorite, just behind the red.
- Price Check: COMC seems to be right on the mark for the Starquest parallels. Blue is at 50 cents (all prices are the cheapest), Green is at $1.50 and red is at $2.65. No gold parallels are currently listed. I couldn't find any gold Starquest cards for Thome on ebay as well.
- It's amazing what you notice on a baseball card, even after you've had it for years. Jim's belt is red. Matches the long sleeve shirt and his socks. Fashion conscious for sure!!
- Robert
- Figured that I would start 1999 off with the bargain brand of sets, UD Choice. I always liked the Starquest cards from this set. I still need the red and gold for Thome.
- Bio on the back: "Thome made the All-Star Team for the second straight year in '98 and belted 30 homers for the third time in a row." Short and sweet, two lines. I like it.
- Career home run #161 was hit 7/23/98, and was the 28th homer of the season for Jim. It was a solo shot, hit off of the Tigers Frank Castillo. It tied the game at 1, but the Tigers went on to win 3-2 thanks to a RBI single by Bobby Higginson in the top of the 6th.
- Robert
- Great shot here of Jim on his follow through, with the catcher's hand grasping at air. Looks like a deep drive to left field for me!
- Bio on the back: "He had the second highest slugging percentage (.584) on the team last season and in the process raised his career mark to .548, which stood as the third-highest in Indians history through the '98 campaign." Who was ahead of Jim in slugging pct? Manny Ramirez of course. Manny's SPCT was .599 for the season, 45 homers will help that number out always.
- Price check: 80 cents for this card is way overpriced. I don't care if it's a star card, 80 cents for a single out of a 99 cent pack is a little crazy if you ask me.
- Robert
- It's funny, you think you have a card in your collection for many a year, then someone sends it to you, and you find out you never had it.
- The only card I need now to finish off the YCTG 95-96 run is the gold set winner. So I head over to COMC to find out how much they're going for. $1. Don't need it anymore....
- I have posted 160 cards for both Sakic and Thome. Maybe to keep myself motivated, it's time for a goal. Let's shoot for 200 cards for each of them by the end of March. 56 days to do it. Going to be some 2 a days coming up!!
- Robert
- Similar to the UD Electric Ice lettering style, the Topps lettering is gold while the OPC lettering is silver. I guess it makes it easy to differentiate between the two.
- Price wise, the OPC is priced as a parallel. On COMC, the Topps base is at 99 cents (cheapest), while the cheapest OPC card is $2.53.
- I don't know if the photo is cropped differently than the Topps card, but the player in the background sure looks like Mike Keane.
- Robert
