2012 Topps Museum Collection Bronze Parallel

My last Black Friday pick up is this 2012 Topps Museum Collection bronze parallel card.  I love the look of the card and a classic photo of Rollie in his prime with the glorious mustache!!

I realized long ago that it's not worth opening high end products like this.  It's so much better saving the money on the excitement and most likely disappointment of ripping open a box of this and just picking up the singles you want down the road.  

Rollie hasn't been getting the love as much in recent years and new cards are few and far between so I'll take the ones I can get and all those colorful parallels.

1975 Topps

My third of 4 Rollie cards I picked up on Black Friday and the second 70's base card I needed.

75 Topps is just one of those iconic sets.  The color combos that don't go with the team colors, the terrible centering all lend a scruffy dog feeling to a great set.  It really is a great and colorful set with some big names and a couple big rookie cards.  Rollie's card however won't set you back that much.

Rollie also has a World Series card in this set, which I already had, but can't figure out how I missed picking this one up for so long.

1970 Topps

It's kind of embarrassing when you look through your player checklist and realize that you're missing some basic cards from your collection.  But I remedied that this Black Friday and picked up a couple 1970's Topps cards that I was missing from Rollie's playing days. 

The first of those being his 1970 Topps cards.  

I ended up high grading off of COMC and not just picking the cheapest card I could find, but instead I picked out a very nice example and it still didn't set me back that much.  

A classic card featuring a pre-mustached Rollie and I'm glad it's finally in the collection.

1987 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics All Time All Stars

I've always been a little jealous of those collectors who had players and teams they collect featured in Mother's Cookies card sets.  It's probably because I'm a huge lover of oddball and food issue sets.  

But I found this 1987 Oakland Athletics All-Time All-Stars card while shopping on COMC for black last Friday and had to take it home with me.  

This also happens to be the only card of Rollie's issued in 1987.  Not surprising since he retired two years earlier and would be elected into the Hall till 1992. 

Still a great looking set even if they are posed photos.  I love the full bleed front and the rounded corners.  Not much for stats on the back, but hey there are All-Star Game stats.

2002 Topps Super Teams

I don't remember ever seeing this on the shelves, but back in 2002 there was a lot on the shelves and i wasn't spending a lot of time looking for baseball cards.  But luckily Rollie has 3 cards in the base set and a couple numbered retrofractor parallel cards too.

I couldn't find odd of hitting certain cards and I'm pretty sure you weren't guaranteed an auto or relic in the box, but the issue did offer that possibility and the checklist, while short, has some pretty big names in it.  Rollie doesn't have any autos or relics in the set.  

This card celebrates the 1974 World Series A's team, it would be the third consecutive World Series win for the A's and Rollie would garner the World Series MVP title.

I ended up picking this beauty up as part of my Black Friday haul at COMC last year.

2003 Upper Deck Classic Portraits

Upper Deck put out some crazy concepts back in the early 2000.  The Classic Portraits boxes came with a collectible player bust.  Rollie's card here belongs with the Baseball Royalty subset. It was made up of the last 42 cards in the set all serial numbered to 1200, and is kind of a shadowbox type card.  

It's a  neat card, but I'm not overly excited about the black and white photo used.

2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Red parallel

Nothing like a mid 2000's Donruss set with a ton of parallels. Here we have the Red Foil Impressions parallel.  By my count Rollie has 8 parallels in this set not counting the printing plates and one relic card.  The only difference between this card and the base and all the other parallels is the foil color, the impressions stamp in the center of the card, and that it's serial numbered to 250.

Basically this card is designed for the relic and autographed versions that some of these cards have.  But as a base card and as a silly parallel to the base card this card has so much wasted and unused space. Really the whole right side of this card is nothing.  It's one of the main failings of a lot of inserts and parallels from this time frame and still happens all the time today.

1982 Police Issue - Milwaukee Police Department

I recently acquired a whole set of these 1982 Brewers Police cards from the Milwaukee Police Department from Tony over at Off Hiatus Sports Cards.  It's a great set (30 cards total) and features all the big and little names on the 82 World Series team including Mr. Fingers here.  I have a few Police Issues for Rollie, but I didn't have an 82 at all so this was quite a boon to get a full team set and get to add the Rollie officially to the Super Collection, although he'll remain with the set for the time being.

The Brewers Police issue cards are interesting in that there are tons of variations because these cards were given out in multiple towns through out Wisconsin and each police department is printed on the front.  According to a list Tony was nice enough to share with me this 1982 set, which was the inaugural police issue, only has 5 variations known, but that jumps to 29 in 1983 and into the high 60's for years after that.  So a player collector has lots of cards they could chase.

I always chuckle reading the back and the player says....

2014 Topps Update World Series MVP Commemorative Patch

The first and so far only officially MLB licensed Rollie Fingers card finally made its way into the collection.  Of course it's another manu-patch, but at this point since I can count all the new Rollie cards are my fingers I'll take what I can get.

The card commemorates Rollie's 1974 World Series MVP award. These cards were found in retail Update blasters.

2014 Panini Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary Autograph #91

Here is the other Rollie auto I picked up recently.  The companion to the previously featured card #57.  While neither card mentions any team, this card is attributed to the Brewers and his card #57 was attributed to the Athletics.  I'm not sure why Rollie got two autographed cards in the set and didn't get a base card, but that's ok with me.  This card also has 5 serial numbered and colored parallels.  

2014 Panini Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary Baseball Autograph #57

It only took most of the year, but Rollie is finally getting a few new cards issued.  

Rollie has not one, but two different Autographs in Panini's Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary set.  And all the numbered parallels for both cards too.  Being patient pays off again as I was able to pick this auto up for a little over $7 plus shipping, which put the card right at about ten bucks which is sadly what Rollie Finger's autographs tend to go for.  But I'll take any new Rollie card for the collection especially if it's an autograph issue. 

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes #91

How is the 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings set like an onion?  

It makes you cry?

It kind of stinks?

You can buy it in 5 pound bags?

No, it has layers.  Lots of layers.  Or in this case parallels.  If you were lucky enough to have a player in this set you collect and wanted to chase you had lots of cards to go after. Not only parallels, but relic versions, autograph versions, relic autograph versions,  and all of those versions have parallels as well.  I think you get the drift.  Also take into account Rollie has two cards in this insert set.  This one and #66 so there are literally hundreds of cards possible.  And it's hard to tell them apart.  I'm pretty sure this is the base card for the set, but there is a parallel called the non-canvas version that looks exactly like this.  I'd probably need to dig out the standard catalog and even then...  The point is there are lots of cards in this set for each player, lots.  My other big player collection featuring Mr. Robin Yount also has a ton of cards in this set.  But that was all the rage in 2005.  Upper Deck's Baseball Heroes also features a ton of parallels and variations.

Anyway, we have here a basic base card of some sort.  It's really set up for the relic and auto versions.  with the relics being placed to the right in that open area above the Diamond Kings logo and the sticker autos being placed on the lower part of the card.

2005 Upper Deck Reflections

Ah Upper Deck Reflections.  So colorful, so many parallels.  

Not a whole lot to say about the card. Pretty simple front and back. Upper Deck probably didn't want to waste all that space with facts and figures.

2014 Panini Immaculate Heroes Relic

Let me introduce you to the first new Rollie Fingers card of 2014.  It's not the only new one now. This card has a prime parallel and Rollie also has some autographed cards in the new Panini Hall of Fame set, but this card marks the first new card of the year to make it into the collection.  

I'm a big believer in timing when bidding on cards. Most of the time it's patience and waiting that lets me get great cards at really good prices, but this card is the exact opposite.  I ended up nearly stealing this card because no one knew it was out there.  Either way a great addition and I'm glad to see Rollie showing up on new cardboard.

2004 Donruss World Series MVP

Yikes. Can't believe it's been so long since I got a post up here.  I'll blame the complete lack of Rollie in this years issues.  Rollie has had zero, ZERO, cards featuring his likeness made this year.  I'm not sure if it's the card companies just overlooking him or perhaps Rollie has had something to do with it, but regardless Rollie hasn't been on my mind, so the blog really hasn't been on my mind.  But that doesn't mean I don't have cards to share.  So let's get this fall started off right.

Going back a decade, we have the 2004 Donruss World Series set. Rollie had a card in the MVP insert. Here we have the base insert numbered to 1000.  There are also relic, autograph, and relic autograph versions of this card too. You can tell that this card was designed with the variations in mind with room for the relic and auto.  The design itself is kind of meh, but the low print run is nice.

2005 Donruss Greats

The mid 2000's were kind of a collecting hole for me. I was out in the field most of the year working some job or another so I missed a lot of the sport card issues that year.  I'm a big fan of the trend of the sports card companies putting out retired player sets.  Donruss Greats was another one of those sets that featured, well, Greats.  Of course Rollie has a base card.  There are at least a few parallels for him in the set, as well as, an autographed version of this card which I have in my collection and will be featured in the future.

1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated Then and Now: Legends of the Game #10

I love finding new Rollie Cards.  I like them even more when the cost me a penny.  Yep this was in my mailbox this morning.  A great 1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated Then and Now Legends of the Game.  Of course I had to pay for shipping, but I still won this card for one cent and shipping was very reasonable. 

A great looking card with lots of picture. This set had various themes in the set,  the first 36 cards were Legends of the Games, then other themes like A Place in History, Legends of Today, and Legends of the Future.  

2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Signatures Autograph card.

It's looking like another dismal year for new Rollie cards, but that just means we can focus on picking up great cards of yore.  Just in is this great 2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Signatures autograph card.

The one thing I really don't like about this card is the fact that Rollie is featured wearing an Upper Deck hat. What's up with that?  Looking at a few of the other cards in this set all that I could find have the inset picture with the player with a team hat.  

It's still a great looking card and the auto is on card which is always awesome.  Having such a nice big space for him to sign you get a great looking signature.  Add to that that this card was less than a ten dollar bill delivered and it's another great addition to the collection

2013 Panini Cooperstown Autograph #d to 700

I have a lot of Rollie Fingers autographed cards. It's one of the things I love about collecting him. His autos are cheap and so are the really cool relic cards.  On average a Rollie auto goes for around $10.  And that's a great price.   I had been trying to pick this card up for a while. I had already picked up his other auto in the set numbered to 199 and I got that card for a steal.  Well patience pays off again. I finally found a seller not asking for the moon with a decent starting price and ended up snagging this guy for $6 and even with shipping got it to me for under ten bucks!  It's been a really slow couple years for new Rollie cards and I'm glad I finally was able to pick up  the last card from last years Cooperstown set.

Time Machine - 2014 Topps Series 1 1975 Buyback

I just picked this up. One of the bonuses that Topps has been including in packs of 2014 Series 1 baseball has been these foil stamped buyback cards. This isn't original. Topps has been ruining prefectly good vintage for years in it's Heritage products.  And a lot of the cards are pretty beat up. I ended up picking this guys up for cheap though and since Rollie has been pretty much ignored that last couple years I'll take what I can get.