2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes #66

Year: 2005

Manufacture: Donruss

Set: Diamond Kings

Card Number: HH-66

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: HOF Heroes

Been awhile, as now seems to be my MO.  Anyways figured I finish writing up a few of the cards I had in my draft folder.  Rollie is featured in the 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes insert set.  Like a lot of the stars in this insert he has two cards.  This card with a color photo and card number HH-91 with a sepia finish.  And like almost every set put out by Donruss in this time frame this insert set has a ton of parallels, from framed color parallels to relic and autograph parallels.  There was definetaly a lot to hunt in this set with a great checklist or stars, retired players, and HOFers.

2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum Silver parallel

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes Red Border parallel

2005 Upper Deck Origins Baseball Red Bordered Old Judge

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: Origins

Card Number: 128

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert set: Old Judge

Parallel Set: Red Border

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 27/99

I guess this will mark the bi-annual Rollie post. I've really let this blog go.  It doesn't help that I have been focusing any of my collecting time, energy, or money on my Rollie collection.  Factor in that the collection has been stored away as we try and sell our home and the lack of office space to scan and to even write post and well something has got to give and that is unfortunately this blog.

Anywho  I do have a few cards cued up and so I figure I should post something to prove this blog isn't dead and won't get booted of the blogrolls.

We have featured here one of the many many sets and paralle sets Upper Deck produced in 2005.  There are tons of parallels to chase for this insert that include some autograph versions.  I like the overall look of the read bordered cards and it being serial numbered to just 99 doesn't hurt either.

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes Green Framed parallel

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Diamond Kings

Card Number: HH-91

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: HOF Heroes

Parallel Set: Green Framed

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 21/50

If I had a hankering to try and track down all of Rollies' parallels from this set it would be a lifetime goal.  There are just so many parallels to chase, color wise and relic and autograph wise. Plus Rollie has two cards in the set, double parallels!!

Hard for me to pass up a cheap low numbered card though.  Here we have the green framed and green foil version of Rollies HH-91 (the black and white or sepia or whatever portrait version, HH-66 features the color portrait).

Damage Control! 2005 Upper Deck Hall of Fame Rainbow foil 1 of 1

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: Hall of Fame Baseball

Card Number: 68

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Rainbow Holofoil

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 1 of 1

I would normally never bother with a damaged card, but the seller was very clear that the card was damaged and that this was also a 1 of 1, so....  for a $1.99 delivered I added this super rare and badly damaged card to my collection.  I should have asked what happened.  Dog attack, tape accident?  Who knows?  But the seller was right it is a 1 of 1 and to a Rollie Fingers collector the price was more than right.

2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Donruss/Playoff

Set: Absolute Memorabilia

Card Number: 183

Card Type: Base

2005 is one of those years in card collecting that if you were in the Hall of Fame you had a ton of cards issued for you.  Rollie is no exception and he has some really nice cards in the 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia set.  Just the plain old base card.  The card features a cropped Rollie in the middle of a throw.  As a Brewers fan it's always nice to see Rollie featured in his baby blues.

2005 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Red parallel

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Donruss/Playoff

Card Set: Playoff Prestige

Card Number:PP-74

Card Type: Insert Color Parallel

Insert Set: Prestigious Pros

Color Parallel: Red

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial  Number: 479/700

I have to say my Rollie Fingers player collection has really taken a back seat to just about every other collecting goal and aspiration.  I blame the total lack of new Rollie this year.  Yes there have been a few auto cards and I've been picking them up pretty cheaply here or there.  But Rollie hasn't been featured in a base set in a couple years by Topps so there's not too much to chase.

So we'll dip into the old collection.  

Here's another color variant or parallel or whatever from Donruss' Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros set.  There's a whole rainbow to collect.  The red cards are numbered to 700 and look like all the other variations, just this one has red foil.

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes Blue Framed parallel

Card Manufacturer: Donruss

Card Set: Diamond Kings

Year: 2005

Card Number: HH-91

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Inserts Set: HOF Heroes

Parallel Type: Blue Framed

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 082/100

Yowza, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted here.  I blame it on the lack of new Rollies, among other things.  Rollie only had one licensed card from Topps last year and a hand full of higher end autos and relics from Panini.  Since I've had so little to chase my collecting dollars and interests have kind of left my Mr. Fingers collection to gather dust.  But I do have a few scanned cards to share.

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings one of the most paralleled sets of all time.  So many parallels to chase I doubt even if you had unlimited funds you could put together a complete player rainbow. Not only does this insert have color parallels, but relic, autographed and relic autograph parallels and color parallels of those!  

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.

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.

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.

2005 Donruss Signature Series

Another set by Donruss in 2005 that featured HOFers and active players and had a crap load of parallels. Besides different color and proof parallels there are a bunch of relic, autograph and relic autograph parallels to chase. Working at Donruss in the early to mid-2000's must have been hell for the checklist guys.

While the overall appearance of the card is nice, it's obvious that the card was designed with the relic and autograph parallels in mind. Why else would Rollie be so off center of the card?

Back in 2005 a hobby box had 4 packs and 5 cards per pack with 7 autos and one relic per box on average. That's also not counting parallel base cards. I have no idea how many parallels you got per pack, but if you think 8 of your cards are hits and I'm sure a few of the 12 other cards in the box were parallels of some sort, that doesn't leave a lot of room for base cards. So putting a set together would have been tough, but since base cards tend to be the least desired cards out of the product like this, that scarcity doesn't really translate to worth. That being said I think I got this card for about 75 cents in my COMC Black Friday shopping spree. And a quarter of that was COMC handling. 

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.

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.