Mailday, A Shiny Mailday

I almost had a good reason for my extended blogging absence.  Almost.  I'm quickly learning that house hunting is a funny thing.  We saw a place we loved, we're lining up everything to put in an offer only to be told that there were some issues with getting the disclosure from a previous real estate agent.  So we waited, wanting to see if there were any issues that we couldn't see with the naked eye before moving forward.  So it wasn't fun to see that the house had gone contingent...apparently somebody else was able to get the mysterious missing disclosure form.  But live and learn, right?  The search goes on!

Meanwhile, I received a couple awesome cards in the mail from Jay at Cards My Mother Didn't Throw Out.  He graciously dug up a couple 2000 refractors toward my set (I'm still trying to dig up some worthy return fire).


Better yet, Jay included a note with a very cool story.  He attended school with Kevin Young's kids, but never quite worked up the nerve to ask Young for an autograph.

Ironically enough, the subject of the other card actually lives right up the road from me.  Matt Clement coaches the boys high school basketball team.  Kate interviewed him a couple times when she was covering education for the newspaper, and I could never quite talk her into putting aside those pesky things like journalistic ethics and dignity to ask for an autograph for her dear husband.

A tale of two unfulfilled autographs, I suppose.  Either way, I'm thrilled to knock out two more needs for my refractor set.  I've actually made some good progress on the set recently, though that just means I'm closed to 80% incomplete instead of 90%.  But they sure are great looking cards.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors

Player: Darren Dreifort
Card Number: 249
Set: Base

Set Progress: 11/478 (2%)

Maybe I'll just never understand the economics of baseball.  Or maybe I'll just never understand numbers that have 6 zeroes after them.  But I'll definitely never understand the LA Dodgers.

Those that still remember Darren Dreifort probably remember the contract more than the pitcher.  And rightfully so.  Somehow the Dodgers spent $55M in the winter of 2000 on the promise that maybe this pitcher with a history of arm trouble who had never delivered on his potential would bloom into one of the best arms in the game.

He didn't.  His arm imploded.  Sound like today's pitching market?

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors: Making a Dent

My collecting has been all over the place this year.  I haven't been to a card show since mid-spring of LAST year.  There have been more than a few stages where I didn't go a week between card shows, and now it's been nearly a year since I've been to a show.

My card budget probably appreciates it, but it's had a major impact on my overall influx of cards.  But of course the internet is always there to help scratch that itch.  But even then, finding cards I want has been a challenge.  I've picked off almost all the low hanging fruit on COMC, and new cards being listed are usually higher than what they're worth in my eyes and the cards still on the site never seem to budge from their inflated prices.

So with the Pirates pickups slowed, I'm working on catching up on some other cardboard related projects.

And right at the top of that list is my 2000 Topps Chrome Refractor set.  Every time I ask myself why I decided to even attempt this set, I look at the cards and remember.  It's just a beautiful set, and whether it's reality or perception, the older refractors just seem to have so much more "shine" than the stock used on refractors since the early 2010's.

 While I didn't pick off any of the biggest names in the set with these pickups, I was happy to add some very respectable semi-stars to my set.

 I can't understate how amazing these cards look in person.  It's going to be a long haul to actually finish off this set, but if I ever get there it will absolutely be worth it.

 These pickups put me over the 10% mark on the set.  There's still a long way to go, but I'm happy to have stuck with it this far.

To update my long neglected updating of this set on the blog, this bumps us up to 10/478 cards in the set, a whopping 2%.  I'm hoping to post some of the other 2000 refractors I've added over the past year to get my progress up to date.  In the mean time, enjoy the shiny!

2000 Topps Chrome: The Inserts

Yesterday, I showed off some of the less than stelar star power from my 2000 Topps Chrome Refractor set-in-progress.  Today I'm back with the inserts, which thankfully have a little more pop behind them.

The thing I really loved about early Chrome sets was the fact that the sets almost completely mirrored the base sets, inserts and all.  As card releases moved away from being insert driven, the paralleled inserts and refractors quickly dried up.  But from about 1998-2001, the Chrome sets feature some absolutely awesome looking cards.  And the refractor versions?  All the better.

 In the Flagship 2000 set, foil was all the rage.  Obviously that doesn't translate to Chrome.  But Topps really stepped up to the plate this year.  Even without the foil features, the insert sets still carry a significant "wow factor" that really pops on the card.  The All-Star Rookie Team is by far my favorite insert in the set.

 But the set boasts a nice range in both design and player selection.  Sure, most of the "can't miss" type guys from the late 90's ended up being big time flops.  But that just makes the cards easier to track down.

 In fact, I have been having a much easier time getting the inserts at a cheap price than the base refractors.  And I guess the math checks out.  Refractors fall two per box, but there are nearly 500 cards.  While most of the refractor versions of the inserts are much tougher pulls (falling about once every other box, in most cases), the sets are much smaller.

 Not that I'm complaining.

I love the look of the cards.  And even if the master refractor set might be a long ways off, I'm holding out some hope that knocking out the insert sets might be a realistic goal within the next year.

Oooo, Shiny

Quite a few things have found their way to the back burner for me in recent months.  Blogging.  Collecting.  Getting to the gym.  Definitely need to get back on that last one.  But I've come to accept that my collecting ebbs and flows.

 Late last year I decided to take on the monster undertaking of the 2000 Topps Chrome Refractor set.  It seemed like a big project to bite off, but I had nooooo idea.

 I've been trying to keep my pickups of commons under $1, which has made things even tougher.  It seems like so many of those late 90's/early 00's cards have dried up.  And at just two refractors per box, there probably wasn't a huge supply to begin with.

 But with my latest COMC shipment, I brought home some more of these beauties.

 Sure, they're all commons.  But I'm glad to knock out a decent amount of progress on the set, even if it is a super-duper longterm project.

 The 2000 refractors have quickly become some of my favorite non-Pirate cards in my collection, and they bring back all sorts of warm and fuzzies when it comes to collecting, since this was really my first exposure to a "high end" product upon coming back to collecting.

It's a little laughable that what was a higher end $3 pack is now pretty much par for the course.  Then again...times change.  Matt Clement was a young hurler with a live arm and promise.  Now he's a high school gym teacher less than a mile up the road from me.  And no, he does not refract in person.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors

Player: Tino Martinez

Card Number: 370
Set: Base

Set Progress: 5/478 (1%)

Woo, finally up to a full percentage point!  This Tino came in from sportlots for a mere $.20.  He had a pretty productive career for the Mariners and Yankees, and was probably a bit underappreciated in the offensive boom of the 90's.  And of course Yankee Stadium's short right field porch undoubtedly helped his numbers.  Compared to the money and production the Yanks have gotten out of Texeira, Tino looks like a real steal in my eyes.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors

Player: Kelvim Escobar
Card Number: 336
Set: Base

Set Progress: 4/478 (0.8%)

Now that is a nice looking card!  The colors just really seem to pop with the blue jersey.  Escobar looked like a very promising pitcher in 2000, and he did manage to have some good seasons as both a starter and reliever.  But ultimately injuries ended his career

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors -

Player: Eric Karros
Card Number: 33
Set: Base

Set Progress: 3/478 (0.6%)

I just got in a couple orders from sportlots that should give me a nice little jump on the set on the cheap.  The cards ended up averaging out to about $.50/card with shipping, so that percentage will finally start moving up into the whole numbers!

Karros was a mainstay in the Dodgers lineup throughout the 90's.  I don't know that he was ever really the face of the franchise, superseded by a rotating cast of Piazza, Nomo, Sheffield, and Shawn Green.  But he definitely wins the longevity award.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors

Player: Carlos Beltran
Card Number: 178
Set: Base

Set Progress: 2/478 (0.4%)

Mmm, rookie cup goodness.  This card was pulled from one of a few boxes of Chrome I bused for X-mas one year.

Beltran has been a consistently exceptional player throughout his career.  But his production with the Royals and combo of speed and power likely made him one of the best players in the league who few people were able to watch throughout most of the early 00's.  I can't tell you how thankful I am that access to MLB.tv has completely opened up our ability to watch the entire league.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors: Technical Difficulties

Player: Sammy Sosa
Card Number: AT9
Set: All-Topps Team
Set Completion: 0.2%


I had a group break post almost ready to go up when my scanner decided to stop working.  So in the mean time, more shiny cards!

I doubt I'll ever have the patience or spare funds to go for a master set of 2000 refractors.  Most of the insert sets are loaded with 90's star power, and I think nearly 500 cards in the base set should be enough to keep me busy.

But that doesn't mean I'll turn down any of the inserts at the right price.  This All-Topps Team design might be my favorite insert from the set, and looks amazing in refractor form.

Slamin' Sammy seems like little more than an afterthought to most collectors these days, but there was a time when he was on top of the hobby.  While I wasn't quite a big enough fan to start a player collection, he is definitely in my second tier of "not a PC, but I'll gobble up as many inserts as I can" category.

2000 Topps Chrome Refractors - Mr. Padre

Player: Tony Gwynn
Card Number: 229
Set: Base

Set Progress: 1/478 (0.2%)

 I mentioned the other day that I'm going to work on building the 2000 Topps Chrome refractor set.  It'll be the first set I've build since 2003 Donruss Team Heroes, to give you some idea of how well versed of a set builder I am.  It's going to be a longterm project, to say the least.

But I have about a dozen cards already, and will be looking to add more during COMC's Black Friday sales.  And there's no better way to kick this set off than with one of the cooler cards in the base set.  The 20th Century's Best subset was one of the more unique inclusions in recent Topps sets.  Sure beats the All-Star parade in Update, right?

The concept was that the cards would feature active leaders in major categories as the 20th Century came to a close.  And with a .339 average, Mr. Padre was a full 11 percentage points ahead of second place Wade Boggs.

I honestly didn't appreciate Gwynn enough during his playing days (or afterwards).  He was in the limelight of his career as I started following baseball in the mid 90's, and in the smash and bash era I didn't appreciate a guy who was just an amazingly pure hitter.

But daaaamn this card looks nice in person.  I'll try to get caught up with where my set currently stands over the next few days, and then hopefully some new additions will start rolling in later this month.

Starting a New (Crazy) Project: 2000 Topps Chrome Refractor Set

I've never been much of a set builder.  I've put together chunks of a few sets here and there, but they were easily completable sets from the early 2000's.  When you break a box and complete the entire set from that one box - not much of a challenge.

So I'm very out of my collecting depth when attempting any kind of set building project.  But here goes nothing.  I'm going to be (slowly) chasing the 2000 Topps Chrome Refractor set.

See, the story goes something like this:  I had pretty much forgotten about baseball cards by the time I hit my pre-teen years.  But in the spring of 2000 my mom dropped a couple packs of 2000 Opening Day into my Easter basket, which quickly turned into trips to the local card shop, MG's Cards and Collectibles to buy packs of 2000 Topps.  And that was enough to keep me happy.  Pack after pack after pack of Topps, feeding me a steady diet of base cards and awesome inserts.

On one trip I remember my mom being interested in what other products they had.  The older guy who worked the counter during the days told us about Topps Chrome, which had just come in.  At $3 a pack for only 4 cards it seemed pretty crazy to 11 year old me.  But my mom decided to buy two packs, one for each of us to rip.  This heartwarming Willy Wonka moment doesn't end with a golden ticket, but I did pull a refractor of Kip Wells (then with the White Sox, but he would end up in black and gold a little over two years later).  That was probably the first time I saw a refractor, and definitely the first I've pulled.  But that about ended our Topps Chrome adventure for the better part of the decade.

By 2009, I was no longer reliant upon mom for my card budget or trips to the LCS.  And the beauty of the internet made it exponentially easier to track down boxes.  As a From: Me, To: Me Christmas present, I picked up a box of Series 1 and Series 2 2000 Topps Chrome.  And I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was bathing in childhood nostalgia for a few hours.  

I probably have something like a dozen refractors from the set at this point, and had never really considered actively pursing a set.  They were just cards that looked cool. and if I could find one in a $.50 box at a show, into my pile it went.

So right now I'm sitting at about a dozen cards from the 478 card refractor set.  This will undoubtedly be a longterm project.  But if anyone has any 2000 Topps Chrome refractors sitting around that need a good home or come across any at a show, drop me an email and I'm sure we'll be able to strike up a trade.