Into the Abyss : A Collector Sifts Through the Darkness

 

You remember being young, right?

            A young collector?

            If you weren’t a young collector, don’t worry, this blog post will probably relate to you too.

            But do you remember? Being young? Being a young collector. Finding packs of cards nearly everywhere you went. Racing into your local LCS. The card shows that seemed to happen almost weekly. Ripping endless packs of wax. Even if you didn’t have much in the way of money, you could still build a collection because the cards were so damned cheap back then.

            Try and remember.

As I’m getting older, I feel like I remember more about being young. Like time is more elastic now than it’s ever been. It could be the fact that I’m starting to look back more than I am looking ahead. Which isn’t necessarily healthy, mind you. Or it could be the fact that I’ve spent the last three years of my life reengaging with a hobby that was very, very important to me from the ages of 6-18.

            6-18 seems a long time.

            But it isn’t.

            36-48 is the same span of time.

            36 feels like it happened yesterday.

            Ugh…enough staring into the abyss!

            There’s a point here and the point is…I’m confused. Or the kid collector in me has finally confounded the more responsible adult collector. The kid has taken control of the collecting, and has run amuck. The kid is ripping wax left and right, old wax, new wax, while the adult collector is standing in the doorway saying, um, um, um…something has to be done about all of this!

            It’s like there’s a great divide that takes place between the past and present.

            Something split that exists inside of me.

            First, I present the card area.

            Then I present my case.

            Yes, on the surface, this just looks like a part of somebody’s collection. Some sets he’s put together. Some sets he’s working on. Some sets he's bought. But look deeper. 1991 Fleer? 1988 Donruss? 1988 Fleer? 1989 Score? WTFF?

            I promise I’m not here to slag off Junk Wax.

            I frickin’ love Junk Wax.

           (is 1986 Junk Wax.? The eternal question)

            (and notice I didn't say book about 1989 Donruss)

             But…

            You see, when I was a kid, I collected three ways. One, I had the star cards and the cards of the players I liked. Two, I had my Pittsburgh Pirates cards. Three, everything else that went into some random boxes, placed in the closet in my room, not to be seen again until next baseball season when I began the process of sorting that year’s product.

            I was not a set builder as a kid.

            I only ever put together 1988 Topps.

            As an adult, at times, I feel like a reluctant set builder.

            That’s because adult collector in me feels that I have to be more responsible. Sure, I found a wax box of 1991 Fleer for ten bucks. Sure, I found a rack box of 1989 Score for twenty bucks. Good deals for some cheap thrills, right? And boy were they fun to sit there and rip through! But the adult collector in me says that something has to be done about this fun. The adult collector is the conscience to the kid collector’s ego and ID. Can’t just rip this stuff, grab the cards I want, grab my Pirates, and then shove all of the rest into a random box.

            I can’t.

            Can I?

            So, I build sets.

            Or I put these cards into set order, in boxes, and then don’t think about them again.

            I’m 20 cards away from finishing 1988 Score

            I’m 54 cards away from finishing 1988 Fleer.

            I’m 63 cards away from finishing 1989 Score.

            …And I don’t know if I even want to.

            That’s not to say as an adult collector that I’m not a set builder. Or I’ve grown into one, happily, if it’s the right product. I’ve built Topps set from 1984-1992 since I’ve been back in The Hobby. 

I’m one card (Damn you John Elway rookie) away from finishing the 1984 Topps football set. 

            I’ve built the 1987 Donruss set, and I can wait to finish the 1987 Fleer baseball set. I’m still a bit away from finishing 1980 and 1981 Topps baseball, but somewhere down the road I know I’ll be putting the finishing touches on them as well.

            I even bought a 1982 and 1983 Topps baseball set.

            But these other sets?

            I guess 1991 Fleer is...nice?

            I don’t feel a pleasure in putting them together. I feel a responsibility. I’m like the guy at the end of a party who feels like he has to clean up the room, when I think about completing some of those sets. The person with intense guilt over a one-night stand. Ripping wax can’t just be about the fun. It has to be functional now as well. Christ…I wish the kid collector would take over with these sets at times. Take those white boxes. Pull the star cards. Pull the Pirates. Be done with the rest of them.

            The kid collector in me wouldn’t worry about building 1989 Score.

            But alas.

            Do any of you feel this way?

            I’ve gotten better. I don’t buy nearly as much, old or new, wax like I did three years ago. I’m starting to visualize the collection I really want (which we’ll discuss in some detail next Friday), and it’s been nice to start off in that direction. But those boxes of uncompleted sets. They’re just sitting there, taunting adult collector me. They’re with me when I’m sorting cards. They’re staring over my shoulder when I’m making a purchase on SportLots. They’ll be with me when I go to a few familiar spots in my upcoming Buffalo/Pittsburgh trip, where I’ll visit some LCS and be sure to run into their brethren.

            They’ll be waiting on me when I get back.

            Truth is, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. It seems silly not to buy the 60+ common cards I need to complete the 1989 Score set. It seems silly to complete the 1989 Score set. Of course, the true humor in this is that it’ll ultimately cost me more to hand-collate these sets then it would’ve been to just have bought them outright.

            But that wouldn’t have been fun, right?

            The kid collector in me is still in it for the fun!

            The kid collector just wants to buy a $10 wax box of Junk Wax and rip away to his heart’s contentment, without the worries over set building and being responsible for what’ll happen to the rest of the cards.

            But the adult collector has to worry about shelf space.

            The adult collector looks at $10 differently than the kid collector.

            The adult collector is ultimately the one who’s making the decisions here.

            It…it would just be nice, sometimes at least, for someone to come along and pull the adult collector out of the room.

            Let the kid have some fun!

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY: Coming out of the abyss: A collector begins to see the light.

I've Seen the Future...and His Name Is Ke'Bryan Hayes

 

It’s hard being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

            Wait…let me rephrase that so it can be more universal.

            It’s hard being a small market baseball fan.

            Reds fans, A’s fans, Twins fans, Orioles fans, and Brewers fans…I’m with you in solidarity.

            I think that covers most of the small market teams.

            Except the Rays.

            The Tampa Bay Rays have learned how to beat the system.

            Notice I said “beat the system.”

            The economic system of Major League Baseball sucks.

            (I promise we’re getting to baseball cards here).

            But the way Major League Baseball’s, with the willing participation of its owners and players, economic system is set-up allows for teams to not spend money. It allows for something as outrageous as a “small market team” to even exist. Would you call the Pittsburgh Penguins a small market team? The Super Bowl losing Cincinnati Bengals? The Green Bay Packers? No you wouldn’t. And why is that?

            Oh wait…I know!

            Because there’s a cap/floor system in the NHL as well as one in the NBA.

            And there’s no small market team in the NBA either.

            And, yes, I know, tanking happens in baseball. We’re witnessing it this season with the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland A’s. The Baltimore Orioles have turned tanking into an art form. The owner of my Pittsburgh Pirates is so cheap, I’m shocked he hasn’t found a way to make toilet paper reusable.

            But imagine if there was a system in place that would force these cheapskates to spend money on their teams.

            Oh…just…imagine.

            Anyway…I digress….

            There was a sign of economic life in Pittsburgh recently. On April 12, 2022, 412 day in the Steel City, the Pittsburgh Pirates made official a eight-year/$70 million dollar deal to keep young, future star third basemen, Ke’Bryan Hayes in Pittsburgh until the year 2030. The contract is the largest in team history and the biggest since the $60 million/10-year deal they gave to super-singles hitting catch Jason Kendall way the hell back in 2000. The deal also has a club option for a ninth season.

            NINE SEASONS!

            For a guy in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform?

            This is a pittance for what Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting should be spending on the team. Centerfielder Bryan Reynolds should be getting something similar or better. When Oneil Cruz comes up later this season and starts dropping bombs into the Allegheny River, he should be given a deal too.

            It’s a pittance…but this Buccos fan will take it.

            Amazing where the mind of “small market” fan goes once the checkbooks start to get opened.

            Let’s get to the baseball card part, shall we?

            I’m a Ke’Bryan Hayes collector. I was before he made his Major League debut in that oddity of a 2020 season. I was, watching him, knowing that he’ll probably be in a Dodgers or Yankees uniform in five years, and I sure as shit am now knowing that Key is going to be a cornerstone of the franchise for the next near-decade. Whenever I buy anything online, I make sure to throw a Ke’Bryan card or two in my cart. The kid’s got the chance to be a perennial all-star. Hit for average.

            And, Nolan Arenado, enjoy those Gold Gloves while you still can.

            When I got back into collecting in 2019, Ke’Bryan had yet to debut for the Pirates. Once I got an angle on where/how to buy cards online, I started purchasing these babies.

            I’m still not sure how I feel about Bowman cards for prospects. They aren’t rookie cards. Some of them can be ridiculously over-priced for players who have yet to take a swing/throw a pitch in a Major League stadium. Jasson Dominguez anyone? The cards aren’t very sharp looking, to be honest. And if you buy enough of them, you end up looking through them wondering where the money went?

            Or at least I do.

            I’ve learned I’m not a prospector.

            I’m more of a man who appreciates a sure thing at my age.

            Except where the Pittsburgh Pirates are concerned.

            Pirates fans have been conditioned to consistently barter their fandom happiness on the hopes in dreams of the ever-coming future.

            It’s why I have these guys lurking around in my collection.

            When Ke’Bryan Hayes came up in September of 2020, and tore up the league with a .376 batting average in 24 games, he looked as close as the next sure thing we’d see in Pittsburgh since…since…hell, I don’t really know.

            I just know that I wanted to stock up on his rookie cards in 2021.

            This is first one I bought…and it must’ve been my lucky day because I was one of the random people who got the numbered one.

            And you all know how much us collectors love the bell and whistle cards.

            That wouldn’t be my last Ke’Byran online exclusive.

            Kicked myself for missing the window on his Living Set card though.

            Of course, what I really wanted was the base rookie card…which Topps made me wait until Series 2 to get.

            I got his Chrome brother as well later in the year.

            (Full disclosure...I'm not a Chrome fan)

            Got the Bowman one as well for good measure.

            In fact, it was pretty easy to get Ke’Bryan rookie cards in 2021. Easy…and somewhat bittersweet. By the time Topps Series 2 came out in June 2021, Ke’Bryan Hayes had been on the injured list, with a wrist injury, since opening in weekend in Chicago. That Rookie-of-the-Year dream dashed in the Windy City. That Topps Now card above was the only highlight we’d had to that “sure thing” who’d hit .376 in 2020. The rest of the season…Key played well. But he played hurt.

            But I still bought his cards.

            As a Pirates fan I was used to “living in hope.”

            And, yes, that is a Rutles reference.

            The great thing about “living in hope” is that Topps tends to live that way as well with their card releases. Topps releases are stacked (sometimes a bit too much and often at the expense of seasoned players) with rookies. And because of potential Ke’Bryan showed in 2020, and because of how touted he was in the Pirates system, Topps made it a point to include cards for him in nearly every single subset and release that year.

            As anyone who reads this blog knows, I’m a fan of Topps putting players, past and present, on card designs that they weren’t initially on. I love how it plays with time. I love the homage. Because of brands like Archives and Heritage, and because Topps was celebrating its 70^th anniversary in 2021 (a year that got peed on for the company a little bit by Fanatics…but that’s all been “sorted out” right?), I had the chance to get a lot of Ke’Bryan Hayes cards featuring him on older Topps designs. So much so that there are still a lot of them out there that I haven’t collected yet.

            A player like Ke’Bryan Hayes also took me out of my interest and comfort zone.

            I don’t often do unlicensed product...but when I do it’s usually of a Pittsburgh Pirates player.

            And so far, his 2022 base (yes, I'm aware that's his 2022 Heritage further up) design is right on the money.

            That kid is going to be a future star. I’m excited to get the chance to watch him on a regular basis. Say what you will about MLB TV but this Pittsburgher transplanted to Brooklyn is happier than a pig in shit watching the Pirates. They might not be a good team in 2022…but they’re going to be a fun team. They’re going to be a team that’s going to show off its talent. They have me as excited as I’ve ever been for a Pirates team, since these guys showed up in Pittsburgh so very, very long ago.

            The Pittsburgh Pirates are up and coming.

            Believe it or not, it’s kind of an exciting time to BE a Pirates fan.

And Ke’Bryan Hayes is going to be such a part of that.

You just wait and see.

            I might be a middle-aged man who’d rather a sure thing. But the Pittsburgh Pirates will always be what makes me place me bets on chance.

            On hope.

            Now…let’s just get going and sign THIS guy long term!

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: My continued evolution in collection i.e. why do I have so much of this and what in the hell am I doing?

 

           

 

           

What We Talk About When We Talk About Online Exclusive Cards

 

Is it FOMO?

            I don’t know.

            I don’t fear I’m missing out on the vast majority of these cards.

           Is it a repressed hostility?

            Maybe…I know I’m not a big fan of things being available for a limited period of time. Been this way since when you had to collect five proof-of-purchases on Star Wars action figures in order to send away for a Boba Fett.

            I know.

            I’m dating myself here.

            When Disney tried to provoke me to buy their movies on VHS, because I had a limited time before they were going back into the Disney vault, I thought, the hell with them. Let them go back into the Disney vault. Which, by the way, I pictured as being this big steel, mouse-head-shaped door that, when open, shown a deep orange illuminated light.

            But full disclosure…I don’t like Disney films…so if a Disney movie went back into the vault it didn’t matter to me.

            See you later, Peter Pan, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

            Ok…so…

            And I don’t feel any hostility toward online exclusive cards or the people who buy them.

            You do you and I’ll do me.

            What are we talking about when we’re talking about online exclusive cards?

            You know what I’m talking about. Topps Now. Topps MLB Living Set. Throwback Thursday cards. Topps Game with in the Game. Topps Project 70. Topps Project 2020. The Montgomery stuff you have to be a member to be able to purchase. Everything from Soccer to Hockey Stickers to Elvis and Star Wars cards all the way to Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids.

            Am I missing anything?

            And what in the actual FF?

            When I checked this morning, Topps listed itself as having 113 online brands. That’s a lot of online, limited time, exclusivity. And this stuff’s not cheap. The Topps Living Set, which is two cards that come out weekly, cost $7.99 a piece or, the more affordable, $11.99 per two card bundle.  The Elvis cards, which I was initially interested in, are $9.99 per card. Who is regularly buying this stuff? And can you tell me which stocks you invest in please?

            I get the anxious sweats just slapping down cash for a single Hobby Box of base.

            I’m not saying the stuff isn’t nice. If it wasn’t there wouldn’t be a market for 113 online products. I like the Star Wars living set, although I’m not even thinking about getting into non-sports cards right now with the way things cost. The 1977 card designs really take me back. I think the Topps MLB Living Set is pretty fun with its 1953 design. They, like a lot of the nostalgia Topps pushes like drug dealers, take me back to being a kid at a card show looking at cards I couldn’t afford under the showcase glass.

It took a while but Topps eventually put up a Topps MLB Living Set card that even I wanted to buy.

And I like the idea of art cards. Project 2020. Project 70. I’ve always viewed baseball cards as art. Kind of hard not to when a card like this exists in the world.

I bought a couple Project 2020 cards.

A little something for Jackie Robinson Day

And I could resist these two Project 70 cards.

That Cobra card is beyond “killer.”

See what I did there?

On the Clemente, I’m a big fan of Lauren Taylor’s sports art work. She does an excellent job of weaving the history and local lore of a player in to her designs.

I even have her Willie Stargell print on my wall, to look at each morning when I sit down to write.

And, yes, I’m bitter that Project 70 made not a single Willie Stargell card.

But Project 2020, with its reliance on artistically reproducing the same small set of rookie card with different artists, well, it got a little redundant to me. Maybe because, other than the unattainable Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson rookie cards, the rest of the rookie cards in Project 2020 didn’t appeal to me. I’d hoped for better with Project 70, but after awhile it became apparent that we were going to see the same players or the same team over and over again.

I really feel for you Dodgers and Yankees fans who have a bad case of FOMO on that one.

The $19.99 on each individual card didn’t help.

Also....do we really need art cards when this card already exists in the world?

That said, I love the Topps Game Within the Game set.

I have one myself.

I’m kicking myself for not getting the Clemente.

            When the Henry Aaron card comes out later this year, I’ll for sure be queuing up.

            Topps Now…well…I’m really trying to understand that one. And I should. I write. Fiction and poetry and now these essays. Some would call me a writer, although I’ve never self-applied the word. I keep, an almost daily, handwritten journal as well. I’m also a librarian. I think I understand the minutiae of life and the desire to keep a record of it. But making a card celebrating Luis Robert hitting a home run and robbing a Seattle Mariner of a home run in a worthless April game?

            Does someone collect all of these?

I…I guess there’s a market for any and everything.

Otherwise, these guys wouldn’t have careers.

And, yes, I’ve also dabbled in Topps Now

Ended up with a short print on that adventure.

            I guess the point of this blog post, if I ever have a point, is that I’m simply surprised at the amount of card product that just exists online. When I got back into The Hobby, online exclusive cards were one of the most intriguing aspects to me. I’d go on Topps web site and just sift through the stuff. When I stopped collecting in 1992, there were no online exclusives. There was no Topps website. There was no online. If you wanted to buy what Topps was selling other than its wax product, you had to send away for one of these babies.

Sure, times have beyond changed since 1992. And online searching is easy. You can buy a car online now. So why not baseball cards? Why not exclusive baseball cards? Google has made a fortune data-mining the shit out of all of us, so that it takes me less than ten-seconds to find a picture of The Rock to put on this blog.

Does he still go by The Rock?

And how many Fast & Furious movies are there now?

I can see the unique allure of online exclusive cards. I don’t always agree with the price, but at least two times a year something catches my eye and hits me right in the wallet. And I guess that’s the point. It just gets me that at this stage in the game one’s whole sport or non-sport collecting experience could be simply what Topps puts up on its web site. Never in packs. Never from a brick-and-mortar store. And with the presence of Amazon.com, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I fear this blog post is me reaching out.

I fear I’m old.

I fear I’m naïve.

But not in that suave Jeff Goldblum way.

I fear I'm more like this.

And don’t get me started on NFTs!

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: Going to take a dive into the PC, talk some Pirates History, and look at the cards I've thus far accumulated for one Mr. Ke'Bryan Hayes