1980 Topps Burger King Pitch, Hit and Run

This has to be one of the best cards I picked up in my COMC Black Friday Hauliday.  I love oddball food issues.  In 1980 Burger King teamed up with Topps to offer a 34 card set (33 players and a checklist) called Pitch, Hit, Run.  The first 11 cards were pitcher, the next 11 were power hitters, and the final 11 were base stealers. From what I could find you got a pack of 3 players one from each group with the purchase of French Fries.

 Other big names in the set are Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Reggie Jackson, and Pete Rose.The Standard Catalog says that most of the photos were identical to the 1980 Topps card with a few exceptions.  But the player position has been replaced with the Burger King logo. The backs are also red instead of blue. But an overall very good looking card. And these are still pretty cheap, even for the bigger named stars.

2013 Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Disc

Another pick up on my Black Friday COMC shopping spree. One of three new Rollie cards put out by Panini this year so far and the only one that's not autographed by the man.  These are of course a tribute insert in Panini's Cooperstown issue to the 1909-1911 Colgan's Discs that were inserted into packs of Colgan's chip gum.  A nice little oddball and I love oddballs. 

There are 165 discs in the set and while they are unnumbered Panini or someone has found fit to randomly assign numbers to these unnumbered chips. Usually unnumbered issues will get a assigned a numbered based on where that player falls alphabetically in the set. Anywho, Mr. Finger's chip is number 108.

2005 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Orange parallel

I think 2005 might have been the year of the most parallels ever produced.  And Donruss was the company that made that happen. Without a doubt the mid 2000's were stuffed with sets that offered inserts in a rainbow of flavors.  Topps and Panini still provide us with a seemingly unending variety of parallels and inserts.

 2005 seems to be the zenith of the fad though.  And it's a toss up between Donruss' Playoff Prestige and Diamond Kings as to which set had the most parallels. I tried counting and I gave up.  But between all the base inserts with varaitions and those inserts with autograph, relic, and autograph relic variations and color variations with those variations, you get the idea. I ended up picking up a couple parallels of Rollie from both Prestige and Diamond Kings.  So first up is one of the many rainbow of flavors from the Playoff Prestige set.  

The insert Prestigious Pros, the color orange. I do believe that Donruss made a color parallel for all the colors in the rainbow and then some.  The orange and the red look very similar, even in hand. But the oranges are limited to just 500 and feature Donruss' Micro Etch technology.  Don't believe me look at the box below!

Anyway I think I picked up this orange shiny beauty for about 3 quarters or about 24 minutes of street parking time in downtown Anchorage.

2006 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts When It Was a Game Silver insert

Sometimes I miss Upper Deck, sometimes.  Here we have a 2006 SP Legendary Cuts When it Was a Game insert.  Lots of foil, serial numbered and a blurry, black and white photo.  I like the design, I really like what the card represents, I'm just sad that Upper Deck couldn't find a better photo to use on the card.

This card also has a gold parallel and relic version, as well as, the 4 printing plates.

1973 Topps

I finally finished or at least got most of my Rollie Fingers collection up on it's own page.  This is not only for potential traders, but mainly for me to have easy access to a have list if I happen to stumble across some new Rollies. Or like on Black Friday want to shop on COMC.

When I finally finished going through my collection I noticed I was missing a few base cards from Rollie's playing days. I had most of his Topps cards, even his rookie, but was missing his 1970 and 1973 card. I didn't end up picking up a 1970, but I was able to snag a cheap and in very good shape 1973 base card.  I've been contemplating actually starting the set. I think 1973 is underrated and it also happens to be my birth year.

Anyways that's a post for another time on another blog. Here is Rollie all his unibrow goodness. 

And while the card has nice corners it is a little off center, but it's always nice to fill a hole in the collection.

2003 Topps Retired Signature Series

One of my goals this Black Friday was to only pick up cards for my two main player collections.  Rollie Fingers and Robin Yount.  And while I picked up way more Younts this year, I was able to pick up some great Rollies as well. 

First up is this 2003 Topps Retired Signature base card.  I really love the look of the 2003 set. That goes for the Topps flagship set this year too. I lament because I was unable to open almost nothing in 2003 due to my work schedule.  I definetly didn't open any of the Topps Retire Signature series.  These cards came in a box with 5 per box and   4 base cards and an encased retired player auto per pack. I have no idea what these went for back in the day, but the only box I could find for sale was on Amazon and it was listed for over $200. 

 There are also black parallels numbered to 99.  I do have the 2004 Topps Refractor auto for Rollie, but this is the first 2003 card I've acquired.

Here's what the box and pack look like.

2005 Fleer Showcase Showdown

Still digging through the pile of old Rollie cards.  2005 was a nice year for Rollie. He had all sorts of cards issued and all sorts of parallels as well.  The first thing I noticed after I scanned this card was holy crap does my scanner need a cleaning.  So ignore all those smudges and scratches this card looks very nice up close and in hand.

The 2005 Fleer Showcase - Showdown #118 serial numbered 05/15.

This card always make me think of the Price is Right.  Come on down!

This is the only version of this card I own. I don't even have the base card. But according to the Standard Catalog there are quite a few different variations.

I also took advantage of the Black Friday deals on COMC and scored some great new Rollies for the collection. Stay tuned for those.

2013 Panini Cooperstown Signatures #d to 199

My first 2013 Rollie Fingers card.  He's only got 3 real cards so far this year. All three are in Panini's Cooperstown set.  All are inserts.  He has two autos and a Coglan's disc.

And so I figure why not get the rarest of the cards first.  I feel like I stole this card.  I won this card for $2.25. The sellers shipping was a little on the high side which is probably why the card went for so little, but I ended up paying $6.25 delivered and I'll take that anyday for a certified Rollie Fingers on card auto. Especially one numbered to only 199.  His other auto in the set is numbered to 700 and right now I'm having trouble finding one that's not way over priced.

But here is the newest addition to the collection.

2005 Topps Series 1 Celebrity Threads

Been slow on picking up new Rollies this year and I've been slowly scanning a bunch of stuff I haven't featured yet, but I thought I'd take a break and feature a cool "new" card I just got in the mail.

This is 2005 Topps Series 1 Celebrity Threads. There are some other big names in the set too like Ozzie Smith and Cecil Fielder.  

A great oddball kind of card featuring Rollie with a bat.  But I think the best part is that on the back Topps actually tells you that the relic in the card was the jersey worn by Rollie during the 2004 MLB Celebrity All-Star Game, you don't see that anymore.

The other great thing about this card I won it for 99 cents plus shipping. Score.

2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants Gold

I'm still digging through the collection, since the looks like 2013 will not be a very good Rollie year for new sports cards.  By my count there are only 3 new cards. Two autos in Panini's Cooperstown Collection and a Colgan's disc insert.  I'm not counting the Tristar cut auto cards.  

So lets take a trip back in time to 2005.  There were lots of products coming out in 2005. And there were lots of Rollie Fingers cards to be had.

I remember when this came out. You got a little Mitchel and Ness mini pennant as a top loader. I bought a box of this way back then. My pennant was one commemorating the 1932 World Series with the Yankees vs the Cubs. Can you guess who won?  I don't remember what else I pulled. I know you got a couple autos and I think a relic too.  I'm also pretty sure I did not pull this Rollie out of that box.  No, I'm fairly certain I got him off of ebay.

Rollie has a couple autos in the set as well, but this card is his Gold Parallel card numbered to just 50.

I also just realized looking at the back of the card here, that Rollie is 5 days older than my father.  But he's also almost 6 inches taller.

1989 Padres Magazine Insert card

I apologize for the lack of posting here. 2013 has been a really slow year for collecting Rollie Fingers. Rollie has only had a hand full of new cards issued this year and at least 2 of them are low numbered autographed cards and Topps has not put out any new Rollie cards this year.  

So instead of waiting till I find a decent priced auto card or a Coglan's disc card that I don't have to pay $3 in shipping I've decided to dip into the collection and pull out a nice oddball to blog about.

I have no idea where I got this card. It most likely came as part of a large lot of Rollie cards I won years ago.

I had to consult the all knowing Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards 2010 edition to find out about this cool oddball.  According to the catalog these cards were part of a 24 card set that was distributed inside the Padres official team programs back in 1989.  There were 4 cards to a panel and 6 panels total.  It was a collaboration between the Padres and a local card store San Diego Sports Collections.  

According to the Catalog a complete set books for about $15 with Tony Gwynn commanding the the premium of the set at $6.  

Rollie's card books at a $1.50. 

And then bam another Rollie auto..!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts all around, but I've been insanely busy and well it's pretty par for the course for me.  I never seem to post much during my busy summers.  But that doesn't mean I've stopped collecting or reading other blogs.  Just wanted to put a quick post up of the newest addition to the Rollie Fingers collection.  This one slipped through my fingers a few years ago and when I saw this up on eBay for auction and not some ridiculous buy it now price I had to go after it.  I finally got a 2009 Goudey Rollie Fingers Sport Royalty auto card!

Panini Cooperstown Auto

Just got my second Rollie auto in the mail this week.  I found this one for an insanely good price right after I found that Golden Age auto.  Sure it's a sticker auto, but the card is numbered to just 19.  As a matter of fact it's 19/19.  Which would have been an awesome card had this been a Robin Yount auto.  It's still awesome as a Rollie card, but I could give a crap of the serial number the seller was so proud of.

Welcome to the collection.  Now who wants a mushtache ride?

The Golden Age

So if you haven't heard Topps extended their exclusive deal till the next decade, but the MLBPA gave Upper Deck a new license and I'm sure Panini will hold onto there's as well.  Last year and part of this year Panini put out three Hall of Fame sets more or less.  There first one was Cooperstown and there second was Golden Age.

Both sets and National Treasures have no logos and Panini got away from having that old food issue look by  cropping out logos and using black and white photos and not airbrushing out stuff.   In Golden Age they also put out Tobacco size minis most of which I still need to pick up for Rollie here.

Rollie has a base card which I featured, but he also has a nice auto in the set.

So here we have Rollie Fingers' Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures card.  The best part about this card other than I got it for a steal is that it's signed on card.  

I also like that Panini went retro with the backs.

2012 Panini National Treasures Patch card

Rollie has a ton of cool card in National Treasures this year.  Some autos and some great relics.  I ended up getting this great patch card serial numbered to just 25 for well under the price of a blaster deliveried.

Mission Accomplished - 2012 Panini Cooperstown Rollie Fingers Auto

Last post, which I admit was a while ago, I stated I was trying to get Rollie's 2012 Panini Cooperstown auto card and get it for under $10.  And while I would have loved to picked this card up for under $10 delivered I still managed to meet my objective and the card had reasonable shipping.

Panini Cooperstown is kind of hit or miss.  While I like the base design, Panini doing what they can with what they have, I really like the look of this Signatures.  Robin Yount also has a card in this set, but only numbered to 100 and I haven't been able to get a hold of one of those yet.  But another great Rollie Fingers autograph gets added to the collection.

2012 Panini Cooperstown Collection

Been a while since I picked up a new Rollie.  Rollie has a base card and parallel and a other inserts in this year Panini Cooperstown Collection and Golden Age.  I just picked his base card up with a bunch of other cards from justcommons.com  I'm still looking for the Crystal parallel and other inserts and been trying to pick a copy of this autographed card for under $10 bucks.  It'll happen, I'm patient.

I actually really like this set.  It's simple and Panini did a lot of close cropping and used black and white photos to get around not having an MLB license, but the over all look of the cards isn't all that bad.  Plus you've got all HOFers.

I've been waiting for his Golden Age stuff to really start clogging the market.  Golden Age has mini tobacco size cards with various backs and parallels, so I've got those to look forward too.