2012 Heritage Mars Attacks

Back in 1962 Topps released a strange, 55-card non-sport set called Mars Attacks.  The set has become somewhat of a cult classic, and is an all-time favorite of many non-sport collectors.  As a result, the cards from that original set still demand a premium in the online marketplace.  To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the set's release, Topps recently put out a Heritage Mars Attacks set:

The base set is a reprint of the original 55-card set, and the cards come on the standard Heritage cardstock that we've all become accustomed to from the baseball sets.  Of course, there are also a handful of new insert sets available in the 2012 Heritage release, as well as artist sketch cards, etc.  I've always been a fan of these, so I was excited to check out the Heritage version.  There are a few somewhat violent cards to be found, but overall it's a fun concept.  The artwork is very vibrant, colorful, and bizarre.  These reprints now make it affordable to see what an entire set looks like together.  I picked up a base set on eBay, let's see some highlights from the best $10 I've spent on cards in quite some time...

The storyline is pretty straight-forward.  The Martians learn that their planet's days are numbered and they need a new place to call home, so they decide to come on down to Earth to whoop our asses, with a whole bunch of tricks up their sleeves.

Even the backs are true to the originals, with the only difference being the copyright line towards the bottom.  I applaud Topps for not changing anything here.

Here we see the Martians approaching Earth.  The first wave of the attack is your standard flying saucer fare.

As you'll see over the next few cards, things did not start well for Earth.  They caught us off guard I guess, what can I say.

For some reason the Martians decided that they were going to pursue major landmarks first and foremost.  Sure, they could have done something like drop a gigantic bomb, or poison our water supply, but they decided that the Golden Gate Bridge was a more critical target.

Not wanting to ignore the East Coast, they also hit up Times Square...

...and some skyscrapers.

This is possibly my favorite card from the set.  These guys know how to conquer a planet in style.  You don't roll up your sleeves and do the down-and-dirty flying saucer work.  No, you leave that for someone else.  What you want to do is just have it up on the big screen, and host a viewing party, complete with cocktails.

It seems the Martians, in addition to looking for a new home, are also quite interested in our women.  Our slender, blonde women that is.

See?

The Martians have a variety of "rays" with different effects, one that frosts...

...and one that shrinks.  At this point, things were looking pretty grim for Earth's population.  We'd been blown up, frosted, shrunken, and they'd taken our beautiful blonde women.  Could it get any worse?

Yes!  The rabbit the Martians pulled out of their hat next was the ability to enlarge insects to 500 times their normal size (random?).

To make matters worse, the insects also developed a penchant for our blonde women!

In one final surprise, the Martians also launched an attack using gigantic robots with huge metal claws and rotating laser-heads.

Another great example of the colorful artwork.

Probably the most disturbing card in the set, card #36 features a Martian destroying a young boy's pet dog right in front of him as he cries out in horror.  The again, I omitted showing cards such as "The Human Torch", "Burning Flesh", and "Burning Cattle" so I guess there are some others in the running.

Here's where our front line met the front line of the giant insects, Braveheart-style.

One of the more interesting cards in the set.  The Eiffel Tower being destroyed by a gigantic caterpillar.  I guess this one doubles and also fits into my small Eiffel Tower collection.

Finally, around 45 cards in, Earth decides that it's had enough, and we send some soldiers up to Mars to fight back.

How could we breathe on Mars you might ask?  Bubble helmets, obviously.  And yes, we could have gone to Mars at any time yet we had no idea there was a Martian society living there prior to being attacked.

This guy's got a good cut.  The Red Sox could use a guy who can swing like that in their lineup right now.

Little known fact; the giant robots on Mars are designed exactly like the toy robots that children received as presents in the '50s and '60s.

In the end, the explosion that the Martians were concerned about, which was the catalyst behind the attack on Earth, occurs.  The planet Mars becomes millions of tiny asteroids.  The End.

The final card has a summary on the front and a checklist on the back.  So, that's a wrap.  This is an enjoyable and unique look back at an off-the-beaten-path Topps release from the past.  I would definitely recommend picking up a pack or two if you're looking for something a bit different...

What I Bought Instead of Allen & Ginter - Allen & Ginter?

Yeah, I spent some of my Allen & Ginter hobby box money on actual Allen & Ginter.  After all, this yearly project is not about bashing the Allen & Ginter set.  In fact, I kind of like the cards.  It's more about proving to myself on a yearly basis that a hobby box is just not a good use of funds given my collecting tastes.  So, for just $10 shipped I opted for a Red Sox team set instead:

#10 - Dustin Pedroia

It's been an awful year for the Sox so far.  They've been bitten by the injury bug worse than any other team in baseball, and the second baseman has not been exempt from it.  Pedroia's missed 18 games this year, mostly due to a couple of thumb injuries.  When he has been on the field he's been having a down year as well.  He's currently hitting .265, which would be his worst average in any full season with the club.  The power numbers are down also, with just 6 HR and 33 RBI in 78 games.

#18 - Kevin Youkilis

We all know what happened here, another symbol of Boston's struggles over the past year or so Kevin is now with the Chicago White Sox.

#35 - David Ortiz

Here's one of the few Red Sox players that was actually enjoying a fine season...unfortunately he's now on the DL as well.

#46 - Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Another bright spot, Salty's 18 HR are tops in all of baseball from the catcher's position.

#50 - Clay Buchholz

Buchholz has been decent.  He's 8-3, however that number is a bit deceptive given his 5.19 ERA.  At least he's been able to stay relatively healthy, already making two starts more than he did all of last season.

#118 - Carl Yastrzemski

The lone Red Sox retired star in the set is Yaz.  He's appeared in A & G once prior, in the inaugural 2006 set.

#136 - Jacoby Ellsbury

Ellsbury missed a solid 3-month stretch after being injured on Opening Day.  He's been solid since returning to the lineup a little over a week ago, and just hit his first HR of the season yesterday in a horrendous loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

#146 - Josh Beckett

After a very good 2011 season (other than that little collapse there at the end), Josh is having a rough go of it in 2012.  I think the Red Sox would gladly ship him out of town if they could, but I doubt anyone would be willing to pick up his contract given how he's been hurling the ball lately.

#241 - Andrew Bailey

The Sox dealt outfielder Josh Reddick to Oakland for Bailey.  Andrew was hurt during Spring Training and has yet to throw a single pitch in a Red Sox uniform.  Reddick meanwhile has really blossomed after finally getting a full time spot in Oakland.  He's crushed 21 HR already in 2012.  Seems like the A's got the better of that deal.

#316 - Adrian Gonzalez (SP)

There are three Red Sox short prints in the set, the first being Gonzalez.  The big story with him was his lack of power through the first half of the 2012 season, however he seems to be coming around now with 3 HR in his last 7 games.  Besides, even when he wasn't crushing the ball early in the season he was still driving in runs, so he's currently sitting at a very respectable 58 RBI.  Sure, we're not going to see mammoth season totals like last year's .338 / 27HR / 117RBI but this guy can flat out rake the ball, and is going to be a cornerstone of the franchise for years to come.

#327 - Jon Lester (SP)

Jon has had the most painful season of any Red Sox player.  He seems to have totally lost all skill and confidence right before the fans' eyes.  Just yesterday he allowed a career high 11 runs on 4 HR to the visiting Blue Jays.  It seemed like every pitch he threw was crushed not just out of the field of play, but out of the entire ballpark.  It's been sad to watch, I hope he can turn it around soon here but I'm not sure that he can.

#331 - Carl Crawford (SP)

We finish things off with what has so far been one of the worst contracts ever handed out by the team.  The Sox made a huge splash in the 2010 off-season bringing in both Crawford and Gonzalez for the 2011 campaign.  While Gonzalez has lived up to the hype though, Crawford has had a tough time.  In 130 games last year Carl hit just .255, a career low.  After missing the entire first half of the 2012 season, Crawford has made an impact in the 6 games he's played since returning to the team.  You have to wonder how long he can stay healthy for.  There have been trade rumors surrounding him for a couple of weeks now, we'll see if anything pans out.

Total:  $7.50
Shipping:  $2.50
Total:  $73.19

What I Bought Instead of Allen & Ginter - Shiny New Cards

Here are some shiny new Red Sox cards that arrived yesterday courtesy of some of my Allen & Ginter hobby box money.  The first eight cards all came from the same seller, $1.25 each with free shipping for a total of $10.

Two 2011 Topps Update Diamond Anniversary cards of Adrian Gonzalez.

He's actually got three cards in the 2011 Update set, so I've still got one more to track down to complete the tri-fecta.

I'm forever behind when it comes to the new stuff, so these are actually the very first Cognac Diamond Anniversary parallels I've seen in person.

I have to say, they really look great.  I'll be searching out the rest of the Red Sox if I can find them at a decent price.

Unlike most new, shiny cards these actually scan fairly well.

I picked up one Gold parallel, #'d / 2011.  This is the third Gonzalez card from the Update set that I mentioned above.

Finally, we have two more Cognac parallels, both of these from the Update set.  Aceves has been one of the bright spots on a Sox team that's been tough to watch at times this year, and I don't have nearly enough of his cards.  In fact, this is only my second Aceves card, and the first depicts him on the Yankees.  Ugh!

Here's another new Red Sox card from a different seller.  This one's from the 2012 Archives '58 Combos insert set.  It's definitely sort of an odd one, just weird seeing Yaz and Ellsbury photoshopped onto the same card.  These inserts are actually a pretty tough pull though, so I was happy to snag it for $3.38 plus $2.40 shipping and handling.  That sale price is a little less than half of what the insert I sold from this set went for, I guess Archives is old news already.

 

To finish things off, here's maybe my favorite card from the batch.  This one came from the same seller as the eight cards I led off the post with.  I may have overpaid slightly at $3, but shipping was free and as a child of the '80s I can't pass up a new card featuring Darryl as a Met.

Total:  $16.38
Shipping:  $2.40
Running Total:  $63.19

What I Bought Instead of Allen & Ginter - Something Modern, Something Vintage

A couple of more items that I used my Allen & Ginter money for have arrived in the mail.  First something modern...

My third (and likely final) 2012 Topps Archives auto, Luis Tiant of the Boston Red Sox.  This is my first Tiant auto, and given that he is one of Boston's most memorable players from the '70s, it's a welcome addition to my Red Sox autograph collection.  I was happy to win this one at $9.95 plus $2 shipping.

I now have Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Will Clark, and Tiant autos from this set, which were really the only three I had an interest in.  Putting these autos to bed is a good feeling, I'll never search eBay for this set again. 

The second card I added to the collection is of the vintage variety:

This card fills a longstanding hole in my collection; a vintage Drysdale.  The closest thing I had prior to this was a 1966 Topps Pitching Leaders card that features both Koufax and Drysdale.  Acquiring individual Koufax and Drysdale cards is something that's been on my long term collecting goal list, and now I can cross Drysdale off.  Still need a Koufax though...

I was happy to add this particular card as well, since I've been on a bit of a '64 Topps kick lately.  I've lost out on auctions for three of these in the past, but this time the price was right at $21.51 plus a reasonable $1.95 shipping fee.  I'll take this card over a blaster any day, for roughly the same cost.  Here are the totals so far, just three cards in and I'm already nearly halfway through my budget:

Total:  $31.46
Shipping:  $3.95
Running Total:  $44.41

What I Bought Instead of Allen & Ginter - 2012 Edition

Alright, 2012 Allen & Ginter has hit the shelves, and it's all over the blogosphere.  If you've been reading this blog for a while now you know that each summer I take the funds I would have used on an Allen & Ginter hobby box and try something a little different.  Here's a review of what I've done the past few years:

2009 - Cheated and purchased an entire base set with SP's, the 75 card National Pride insert set, and the 25 card baseball highlight sketch insert set.

2010 - Got a bit more creative. Used the money to make a variety of purchases...a Jim Lonborg auto, some pretty cool graded cards from Sirius Sports Auctions, finished my 1991 Topps Stadium Club Series 1 set, expanded my Will Clark collection by 125 cards (if you're a Clark fan definitely click that link), added to my 1993-94 SP hockey set, grabbed two graded second-year cards of Red Sox legends, and finally got my first Will Clark auto.

2011 - Built my own Check-Out-My-Cards "Hobby Box".

This year I just don't have the time for anything that requires as much effort as last summer's series of posts.  Instead, I'll have a handful of posts of completely random cards, much like in 2010.  Hobby boxes of Allen & Ginter are running for $90 plus $10 shipping on Dave and Adam's Card World at the moment, so I will use that as my benchmark and keep the total of my purchases to under $100.

Here's the first card for this year's project, a Shaq RC from the '92-93 Skybox set.  I mentioned in a previous post that there were a few O-Neal rookie cards that were the desire of all the kid collectors I knew back in the day, and this was certainly one of the cards I had in mind.  I was around 10 when the Shaq craze swept the nation, and although I didn't collect basketball cards I wanted this one so badly I could taste it.  When I spotted a copy in the small card case at a local pharmacy I knew I had to have it.  A full weekend of chores and yard work later I had come up with the required funds, and walked out of that pharmacy feeling elated with the card in hand.

I'm not entirely sure what happened to that card.  If I had to guess I'd say it's stuffed in a box somewhere in my parents' basement or garage.  Maybe I even traded it away, I don't recall to be honest.  It's funny how as a child something you desired so much in one moment can be forgotten in almost the next.  Now all these years later I have a copy again.  This purchase was totally worth it for the nostalgia factor alone, but aside from that this card has one of the worst backs I've ever seen:

Cost:  $9.00
Shipping:  $0.00
Running Total:  $9.00

1953 Topps Project - William Kennedy

As the second half of the 2012 MLB season is now underway, it seems like an appropriate time to post another card towards my 1953 Topps set:

Today's subject is William Kennedy of the Boston Red Sox.  He was actually the property of both the Yankees and Red Sox at different times as an amateur player in the late '30s and early '40s.  Bill debuted in the Majors in 1948 though, appearing in 32 total games for the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns.  The following season he made a career-high 48 appearances, including 16 starts.  In 1950, however, Kennedy had just a single appearance (2 innings).  I suspect this was due to injury, does anyone know for sure?  Whatever the case, in 1951 he was back for one final season with the Browns, but in 19 appearances went just 1-5 with a 5.79 ERA.  Before the start of the '52 season the Chicago White Sox purchased Bill from the Browns.  In that '52 season, his only with Chicago, he appeared in a league-high 47 games (all but one in relief) and lowered his ERA significantly to 2.80.

I think the White Sox knew the end might be near for Kennedy, because despite one pretty solid season with the club they dealt him to the Red Sox prior to the '53 season.  He was mediocre in 16 games for Boston in 1953, and didn't make another MLB appearance until he landed with the Cincinnati Reds for the 1956 season.  He pitched a single game that season, giving up 4 earned runs over 2 innings for an ERA of 18.00 on the year.  Kennedy got one last shot with the Reds in 1957, but his career was over after he went 0-2 with an ERA of 6.39 in just 8 games.

Set Progress:  47 of 274 (17%)

Shaq and the Nostalgia Factor

Yes, I'm still around.  It's been a great summer here in New England, and I've been spending most of my free time enjoying it to the fullest.  I haven't been buying many cards, and I certainly haven't been very active with posting here.  Instead, I've been wasting my hours out on the ocean, watching fireworks shows, eating fresh lobster and drinking beers in the hot sun.  What can I say, some things in life can be more enjoyable than little squares of cardboard.

I haven't given up on collecting though.  This is just something that seems to happen to me every year around this time.  I've still been keeping up with reading the other blogs in my blogroll, and I've still picked up a few odd cards here and there.  Here are a few examples that have arrived recently...

If you were a 10-year-old like I was in 1992, and you collected sports cards, there was no escaping the Shaq craze.  It didn't matter if you were a die-hard NBA fan, or had never watched a single game.  Whether you collected basketball cards or not, you wanted a Shaq rookie.  Among my group of card-collecting friends, these were just about the most valuable cards on earth, at least for a couple of years there.  I swear there was a time when you could have flipped this Fleer Ultra card for a vintage Hank Aaron no questions asked.  Fast forward 20 years...the market's bottomed out and I paid $6 shipped for this mint copy (and probably overpaid at that).

This card doesn't really fit with my collection at all, but it was cheap enough and I couldn't pass it up for the price just because of the memories it brings back.  Have you ever purchased any cards that fall well outside the scope of what you normally collect just for the nostalgia factor? 

There are a couple of other Shaq rookies that I recall fondly as well, I'm probably going to track those down.  Since I picked this card up from one of my favorite eBay sellers, I decided to browse around to see what else he was offering.  I stumbled upon one of the best looking '80s baseball cards that I had never seen:

When I first saw this card I did a double take.  I couldn't recall exactly what Gooden's '85 Donruss card looks like, but I was sure I hadn't seen this photo before.  A quick eBay search confirmed that this was not his base card from the set.  This card is actually hand cut from an '85 Donruss wax box.  The photo selected for this one is far superior to the somewhat boring portrait shot that appears on Dwight's standard '85 Donruss card.  I don't stumble across too many '80s baseball cards that are "new" to me, so I was really happy to add this one to the collection.

Here's the back.  From reading the career highlights section you can definitely tell that this was released right in the middle of the Gooden hysteria.  There are also Ryne Sandberg and Ron Kittle box panel cards numbered PC2 and PC3.  Neither of them look as nice as the Gooden in my opinion though.  I picked up one other card from this eBay seller to complete my order, another basketball card believe it or not:

This one's from the 1970-71 Topps set.  Like a few Topps basketball sets from the era, this one uses the tallboy format, which I love.  At the very end of the base set is a small subset containing a card for each game of the NBA finals between Los Angeles and New York.  This particular card, for game 6, features a great shot (and facsimile autograph) of Wilt Chamberlain.  I know this isn't a true Wilt Chamberlain card per se, but it was a chance to get a vintage Chamberlain in my collection for a very reasonable price.  The card is in really great shape and set me back all of $8 shipped.

The back of each card from the subset gives you a breakdown of the game.  As you can see Wilt put forth a monster effort in game 6.  Had he shot a bit better from the free throw line, he would've topped 50 points.

Here's my latest '52 Bowman, Omar "Turk" Lown of the Chicago Cubs.  I seem to pick up one of these cards every few months.  I don't know anything about Lown, this one was purchased solely based on aesthetics.  I really love the way this card looks, with the sparsely populated grandstands in the background and Turk's gigantic cleat in the foreground.

Finally, we have one more basketball card.  I picked up the Robert Parish card from the '86-87 Fleer set a while ago, and instantly realized why this set is so prized amongst basketball collectors.  I've wanted to pick up a Larry Bird ever since, and recently found one in a condition and at a price that I was happy with.

Well, that's all for now.  I do have some other great stuff to get posted, including an extremely generous surprise package from Casey at Drop the Gloves, I hope to find the time to get it all posted soon.  In the meantime, I hope you're all enjoying summer...

1974-75 Topps Hockey - Oh So Close!

I kind of strayed on this project for a while, but here are my two most recent pick-ups towards my 1974-75 Topps hockey set.  Both are Hall-of-Famers, and both are pretty great cards.  I think they're significant enough to deserve their own post.

First up is Borje Salming's rookie card.  Borje was one of the NHL's first great European players, and was one of the better defensemen of his era.  Salming became the first Swedish player elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996.  These can be found pretty cheap, a great way to add a HOF RC to your collection without spending much cash...

The other pick-up was Guy Lafleur.  I've wanted a copy of this card for a long time, and as it turns out Guy ended up being one of the final few cards I needed towards my set.  What a great photo of the Canadiens' star.

I like that this card is from early enough in Lafleur's career that the back says he "could be ready to move into a 'star' category".

The best part about these is that they are in much better shape than most of my '74-75s, certainly good enough that I'll never need to bother with upgrading them.  With these two slid into place in the binder, I'm now just three cards short of a set.  I need to track down #2 (Assist Leaders/Bobby Orr & Dennis Hextall), #130 (Bobby Orr AS) and #260 (Bobby Clarke) and then I can finally put this one to bed!