Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Frank Robinson, 2010 Topps History of the Game #HOTG20

This is a pretty nifty insert that I pulled during my box break of 2010 Topps, with Frank Robinson showing off his 1966 American League MVP plaque. Of course, the caption makes it seems as though he won both the National League and American League MVPs that year, which would truly be remarkable. (He won the 1961 NL MVP with the Reds, and his 1966 award with the Orioles made him the first player to get that honor in both leagues.) But enough about the nice cards that I pulled...

Who wants to trade for some crappy cards?

Okay, so salesmanship was never my strong suit. Seriously, I’ve unlocked six cards in Topps’ Million Card Giveaway and my luck seems to have run dry. Besides the excellent 1958 George Crowe card that was the subject of last week’s show and tell, I did have one other vintage hit: a 1964 Don Blasingame. I already have Don’s 1965 card and I’m not crazy about the stripped-down 1964 design, so I decided to make a deal. I only need 56 cards to complete my 1965 Topps set, so I tossed out a few reasonable trade requests on the Giveaway website. The next day, I had a shiny Jim Bouton sitting where that blah Blasingame had been.

But the four cards I’ve redeemed since have been pretty lackluster. I already owned the first two, a 1993 Jack Clark and a 2008 Tadahito Iguchi. Last night’s prize, a 2001 Roberto Hernandez, was new to me but still underwhelming. Today, another blasted 1988 Topps - Tony Gwynn. I’ve tossed out some trade requests for these and the previously-unearthed 1988 Juan Samuel, trying to at least get something of interest to myself: one of the cards I need to finish my 1982 set, or a player I enjoy on an unfamiliar team (one offer I made was Iguchi for a 2003 Rickey Henderson Red Sox card). But so far, no bites. Still, you never know what someone else might want or need.

With that in mind, I’m throwing it open to the readers of this blog. If you’re participating in the Million Card Giveaway and any of these four cards catches your fancy, make an offer on toppscards.com and there’s a good chance that I’ll say yes. The caveat is this: I already have complete sets from 1986-1991, 1993, 1995, 2000, 2005, and Series 1 2008. I had a lot of fun completing the Blasingame-Bouton trade and I’d like to wheel and deal some more! In case you didn’t already know, here are the eligible gentlemen:

5 comments:

  1. Damn, I forgot The Gooch played for the Phils.

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  2. How does that Million Card Giveaway thing work? You get a code, unlock the card, then they send you the card? That's a lot of postage if so. Why not just have the card in the pack? What's the deal with airplane peanuts?

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  3. Uh helllllloooooo...Bill James ranks Jack Clark as one of the top two most valuable offensive properties of the 1980s!

    lol..actually he does..too bad that doesn't translate to card value.

    That Frank card rules.

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  4. That Frank card definitely rocks. My son has the middle name Frank in honor of him.

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  5. Chris - So did he.

    William - You have to pay to have your cards shipped to you. I'll definitely do that for the older cards, but obviously I won't be ponying up for Juan Samuel. I'm just having fun checking out the cards on their site. Each player has a gallery of all of his Topps cards, so you can see him throughout the years. And the trading is a fun concept. So really they're creating more buzz for their product by doing it all online. It's one of the sharper moves they've made in recent years, I would say.

    F of C - As often as Frank is depicted on cardboard, it's always good to see a new picture of him.

    BJ - I bet your son is glad that you weren't a Drungo Hazewood fan!

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