Another NAFTA Return and a Bunch of New Cubs Cards
Plenty of new Cubs baseball cards were added to my collection among three packages that came in the mail on Saturday.
A couple months ago there was Topps Holiday fever as Wal-Mart was restocking last year's product and collectors were scooping them up for the Ronald Acuna rookie cards. I caught the fever and picked up 26 boxes total. You want to know how hard it is to pull an autograph (Holiday boxes guarantee an autograph OR relic in each box), I pulled zero.
The new edition of Topps Holiday was recently released, and apparently it's an improved break over the past couple years. This year's set also looks much more like Christmas, or holiday...whichever term you prefer.
Thanks to Blake in New Mexico for sending a few Cubs cards from the 2019 Topps Holiday set. These are my first of the year. I'm a big fan of the green border with the holiday theme.
Blake didn't stop there as there was a small stack of new Cubs cards for my collection. A couple of 2019 Topps Fire gold inserts of Kris Bryant and David Bote.
On occasion I get the urge to buy a blaster or two of the Panini Leather & Lumber, but never pull the trigger. Maple & Ash is a pretty cool idea for an insert as you can see with this Ryne Sandberg card.
Another new card and this one is from Diamond Kings. Anthony Rizzo.
A purple shimmer from 2019 Bowman Chrome of Aramis Ademan. I'm excited to follow Ademan through the system. I feel that he is an underrated Cubs prospect.
Finally, my favorite card of the stack is a Javier Baez. This card is from the Topps X Francisco Lindor set. Last year I did buy a Bryce Harper set, but did not buy the Lindor or Fernando Tatis Jr. sets this year. What a cool card. Puerto Rican heritage.
Another NAFTA package from Glenn in Connecticut arrived. Make sure to follow him on Twitter (@TheHobbySpyder) as he does some great progressive auctions as well as the NAFTA trades that I participate in. One new card that was in this round of NAFTA is a Daniel Murphy insert from 2019 Topps.
Manufactured relics are not my favorite, though some of the cards do look nice. For example this Kris Bryant from 2018 Topps. The manufactured relic is the American flag. Very cool card.
Did you know Chris Archer was once a Chicago Cubs prospect? He came to the organization from Cleveland in the Mark DeRosa trade in 2008. Baseball America rated him the 15th best prospect in the Cubs organization in 2010. Just cracking the top 10 on that same list? D.J. LeMahieu. By the way, Starlin Castro was the number one Cubs prospect that same year. Archer was then traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in January 2011 as part of a package that netted Matt Garza. While Archer hasn't been a top tier pitcher the last couple years, he was an All-Star in 2017, and in 2015 he finished fifth in voting for the American league Cy Young Award.
An Addison Russell purple parallel from 2015 Topps Tribute numbered 50/354.
Saving the best for last. What a year Jorge Soler had with the Kansas City Royals in 2019. He lived up to all that potential he had as a Cubs prospect and young big leaguer. Here's a 2017 Diamond Kings autograph/relic numbered 63/99.
Shawn in Texas sent a big box including more than 500 Cubs baseball cards. A manufactured relic appears in a 2018 Topps Anthony Rizzo Player's Weekend patch.
A jersey relic of Corey Patterson from 2005 Upper Deck. The back states: "You have received a game-used jersey card from the Upper Deck company. On the front of this card is an authentic piece of a jersey worn by Corey Patterson in an official Cubs Major League Baseball game. We hope you enjoy this piece of MLB history as we at Upper Deck continue to keep you as close as you can get!"
Not sure if that is in fact true. Card companies have a shady past regarding "game-used" relics. If they in fact used swatches of jerseys worn by a player in a regular season (or post season) game, that would be unique, and improve the collectability of jersey relics.
Here's another relic, and this is a game-used bat from 2007 Topps of Aramis Ramirez.
And Shawn included a 1987 Fleer Update Greg Maddux rookie card.
Some great additions to the Cubs baseball card collection.
One Million Cubs Project Stats Friday's (11/8/2019) Cards: 672
Friday's (11/8/2019) Packages: 3
January's Cubs Count: 9,343
February's Cubs Count: 8,980
March's Cubs Count: 15,704
April's Cubs Count: 11,651
May's Cubs Count: 7,273
June's Cubs Count: 7,690
July's Cubs Count: 10,803
August's Cubs Count: 11,929
September's Cubs Count: 9,127
October's Cubs Count: 15,675
November's Cubs Count: 3,107
Total Trades/Donations: 289
Trade States of Origin: Arizona (4) Alabama (5)
Arkansas California (21)
Colorado (5) Connecticut (17)
Delaware (2)
Florida (11)
Georgia (3)
Idaho (3) Illinois (25) Indiana (6)
Iowa (2)
Kansas
Kentucky (2)
Louisiana Maryland (12) Massachusetts (11)
Michigan Minnesota (3)
Mississippi
Missouri (5)
Nebraska (2)
Nevada (2)
New Hampshire (2) New Jersey (14)
New Mexico (4) New York (28) North Carolina (6)
North Dakota Ohio (17)
Oregon (3) Pennsylvania (8)
Rhode Island (2)
South Carolina (2)
South Dakota Tennessee (8) Texas (8)
Utah
Vermont (5)
Virginia (2) Washington (5)
West Virginia (7) Wisconsin (12)
Countries of Origin
Canada (1)
Korea (2)