It’s been a busy Memorial Day weekend after breaking open a bunch of 2020 Bowman, listing in my eBay Store, shipping, and playing catch up on trades.
In a recent trade with Mike from Indiana, he sent some pretty sweet Cubs hits. We have traded a few times in the past couple years, and he takes some excellent photos of the South Bend Cubs, such as Gleyber Torres featured in this post.
One of the hits he sent was from 2018 Topps. It’s Kyle Hendricks and numbered 3/50. These red parallels really pop, and I typically don’t miss them while sorting like I have the Independence Day and camo parallels.
Nearly 20 years ago it was a rarity to find a jersey relic in a pack. Now they are really common, so it’s neat to find the older fabric swatches. This one is from 2001 SP Game Used Edition. A nice blue pinstripe on the Mark Grace jersey patch.
Let’s continue talking jersey relics. Here’s my guy – Javier Baez from 2018 Topps. I’m a big fan of jersey relic designs. They make or break the relic card. Some designs are just boring and do not do any justice to a piece of fabric.
But this Baez is designed well with the action photo of Javy on the far left, the tilted Cubs logo at upper center of the card, and Javier Baez and Chicago Cubs printed along a red stripe above the piece of gray jersey.
More hits including a piece of jersey from Carl Edwards Jr. It is from 2015 Bowman Inception, has a blue pinstripe down the center AND is autographed.
Another Carl Edwards Jr. autograph and this is from 2016 Topps Archives Snapshots. A rookie autograph!
Topps Fire is a product that I both love and hate. When it first released as a retail exclusive product a few years ago it was super hot. People were clearing Wal-Mart shelves and trying to flip the boxes for twice the suggested retail price.
That was my rude awakening to the baseball card flip life. I tried doing just that with both Topps Fire and Bowman Platinum. It didn’t work out so well. Can you flip them upon release for profit? Yes…but the profit is minimal. We are talking like $5 after fees and postage. It’s better to just buy what you want and open the product. Still, I think the cards are unique. It’s definitely a much different design than other releases throughout the year. Take a look at this Anthony Rizzo purple parallel numbered 50/99.
A couple cards from the higher end products. These have really thick stock. Another Anthony Rizzo card and it’s from 2018 Topps Tribute.
From Topps Triple Threads it’s Ryno! This card is also from 2018. I can never get enough Ryne Sandberg cards.
Finally, probably my favorite card of the box. Can you believe that? I like the following card more than a Javier Baez hit? I’m a sucker for Cubs history.
Gene Hermanski played for the Chicago Cubs from 1951 to 1953. He played a total of nine seasons in the big leagues with other stops with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Gene was a great through the mail signer long after his playing days. Sadly, he passed away in 2010.
Thanks for another great trade, Mike!