A bunch of Blue Jay variations

One of my favorite modern baseball card gimmicks is the use of photo variations, particularly in flagship Topps. They're usually fantastic photos, at least in my limited experience. And while I know it would probably be better if Topps just used the best photos for their base cards, I kinda like that they're also rare. I've never found one in a pack myself, but I did happen across an eBay seller recently who had several that I liked for reasonable prices and a flat shipping rate. 

This was probably my favorite of the bunch, because the 2015 Topps design is so unique and it works really well with Blue Jay colors. This is from Series 1, since Brett was actually traded before the season began to the A's in the deal that brought Josh Donaldson to Toronto. I obviously can't complain about the return given the whole Donaldson-MVP thing, but I was sorry to see Lawrie go. He's kind of a polarizing player and he never met the insanely high expectations set for him in Toronto, but he was a lot of fun to watch play. And of course he's Canadian. I'd like to see him do well in the future. 

One more from 2015 Topps. It's not really a remarkable photo, so I'm not sure why this was chosen as a variation. There's lots of green in the photo, which is nice I suppose. I get why they'd want to do a variation on Devon Travis, though: He looked like a budding star during his rookie season -- at least, when he wasn't hurt. He just had shoulder surgery that will hopefully solve things going forward. There's a decent chance he could wind up batting leadoff in front of a lineup that includes Bautista, Encarnacion, Donaldson and Tulowitzki. If he can stay on the field, he could really have a monster season.

Jumping back two years, this is from 2013 Topps. I think a lot of the photo variations that year were of players attempting to make leaping catches. This is great photo of Rajai Davis in mid-leap (although it sure doesn't look like he's going to reach the ball). But I'd argue that the photo used in his base card, which pictures him scoring a walk-off run, is even better. I recently picked up an emerald foil parallel of that one. 

Man, Brett is a favorite of Topps' when it comes to the photo variation treatment. His Oakland card in Series 2 also got the variation treatment. And his Topps rookie card variation is quite possibly my favorite Blue Jay card ever.

This is the one non-Blue Jay variation card that I added to my cart, although Russell Martin is obviously a Blue Jay now. And another Canuck!

And, finally, this last variation is from 2014 Topps. It's not the photo that is the variant, though...

It's one of Topps "Sabermetric Stats" variations. It's sort of a nerdy idea for a variation, I now. But everyone loved Moneyball, right? 

Baseball and hockey grab bag.

Haven't had much time for posting lately, so I decided to combine a bunch of random cards I've picked up over the last few weeks into one grab-bag post.

I've been wanting to buy a box of 2014 Topps Archives for a long time now, as I love the '71 hockey and Major League inserts and the Fan Favorite autographs always seem cool. But hobby box prices are insane. So I had to settle for a random blaster I found in the clearance rack at a local Target. As you'd expect from a retail box, I didn't get any of the any of the hockey design cards, which are tough to pull even in hobby packs (1:24). But the very last pack of the blaster did produce the next best thing in my book: Wild Thing's 'rookie card.' There are four cards in the Major League insert set and they fall at a rate of one in 12 hobby packs. So finding this in a retail box is a small win.

Made a trip last week to one of the two card shops around here and stumbled across of trio of bright parallels of same of my favorite recent Blue Jays base cards, including this one of Rajai Davis celebrating a walk-off hit with teammates. This is an emerald foil parallel and it's from 2013 Topps flagship.

And here's an orange parallel from 2013 Topps Chrome. The trade with the Mets for Dickey is looking like an awful one as both Noah Syndergaard and Travis d'Arnaud look like they'll be front-line players for the Mets for years while Dickey has basically been a league-average innings eater for Toronto. But he's such an interesting and likeable guy. Definitely one of my favorite Jays despite the failing to live up to the hype.

And the third colorful Blue Jay is Mark DeRosa from 2014 Topps flagship. I believe these blue parallels were exclusive to retail packs sold in Wal-Marts.

Switch over to hockey, I found a new Yzerman for the collection in a $1 tub. I didn't even know 2014-14 SPx hockey was a set that existed...

Next up is a numbered rookie card of one of the greatest Guelph Storm players of all-time: Martin St. Pierre. It's not a particularly rare card, with 1999 copies. But I really like it because the write-up on the back references St. Pierre's time with the Storm, including the fact that he was MVP of the 2003-04 OHL playoffs.

Randomly, the card shop, which doesn't have much hockey at all, had more than a dozen red parallels from 2009-10 Champ's, which is probably my favorite modern hockey set. The red parallels were medium-level pulls, falling at something like four per box. But I've always thought the reds look much nicer than the rarer yellows (one per box). They were all a little over-priced at the card shop, so I passed on all of them but this one of Scotty Bowman, which is probably my favorite card in the entire set.

I've said before, I'm pretty much a sucker of framed cards. This is the first one I've picked up from 2008-09 Masterpieces. It commemorates the season in which Neely scored 50 goals in less than 50 games.

Finally, this is also from 2008-09 Masterpieces. The framed "Brushstrokes" autos from that set are some of the nicest autos around in my opinion, and I try to make a point of picking them up whenever I find them for cheap (read: no more than $5). That's exactly what this one set me back in an eBay auction.

Sixty-year-old juniors

Been a while, so I'll just jump right in with some unusual vintage I happened across a few weeks ago.

It's a vintage Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters card! This card, of a player by the name of Irvin Scott, is from a set released in 1952 that's often referred to as "Blue Tint" because (I assume) of the blue shading in the cards. The maker of these cards is apparently something of a mystery, although if this website is to be believed, they were produced by a Canadian candy manufacturer called Bedard & Donaldson. 

As you can see, they're fairly no-frill cards. A close-cropped head shot on the front and then some bare bones biographical info on the back. They're also smaller than a contemporary card, but bigger than a tobacco card. About the size, I'd guess, of a 1952 Parkie. 

It's a 182-card set and it includes several famous names, including Henri Richard, Al Arbour and Don Cherry. Alas, Irvin here isn't among them. All I can find on him is that he played one season with the Biltmores (who were a farm team for the New York Rangers back then). 

The seller who had this card list also had two others from the seat that were in pretty decent shape and selling collectively for less than the price of a blaster: 

Here's card #16 in the set: Archie Burton of the still-in-existence Windsor Spitfires. I love that you get decent look at the old jerseys. Archie never made the NHL, either, but he did play a couple of seasons with the Clinton Comets of the now-defunct Eastern Hockey League. He was apparently from Sudbury and quit hockey after he was traded because he had married a local girl and started a family. That's according to this story in the local paper in Utica, N.Y., which ran a story on the Comets a few years ago. 

And this is #36: Leon Michelin of the Trois-Rivieres Reds of the Quebec junior league, which, like the Biltmores, are no longer around today. Can't find much on Michelin, either, although this might be the best card of the bunch. It's fascinating to see some of the old gear and the brick background of whatever hockey rink Michelin was in at the time. 

These cards are more than 60 years old, which makes them the oldest cards in my collection. I'd love to pick up more of these someday, although glancing around eBay, it seems like most sellers want a king's ransom for them. So it may be a while before I do.