2011 Summary

2011 was a very interesting one for me, both in the card collecting arena and outside it.  I think I was more excited about baseball card collecting in 2011 than ever before and I think I probably bought more 2011 cards than any other year.  I'll probably also continue pursuing 2011 cards even in the years to come, which is very unusual for me.

This, in large part, was because my first child was born this year and I wanted to have a nice binder of cards to give him from his birth year.  Well, I'm up to two binders and I've got a lot of cool stuff.  I decided to collect both Mets and Cubs cards this year since my wife's family are fans of the Cubs, but the nicest cards I got somehow ended up depicting the East coast version of the lovable losers: aka the Mets.

Here is what I think is the nicest overall card I grabbed this year.

I say it is the nicest because of the combination of the caliber of the player, the coolness of the card (my blog is called clear cut for a reason), and the print run.

Here is the shortest printed card I picked up this year.

A Mike Pelfrey Bowman International Cyan Printing Plate.  By the way if anyone out there has the card this plate helped make, let me know I'd be interested in trading for it.

And just to show people I did actually try to get some cool Cubs cards here is a dual relic/auto of Andrew Cashner.

Hey, it is not my fault they traded him.  It was an interesting trade, and I think it can work out for both teams. I think Cashner will succeed as a starter, despite what some people in the Cubs organization think about his ultimate destination as a reliever.

Oh, and thanks again go out to Tony and Ike over at Ike's Cards for this Starlin Castro relic.

As long as Castro is innocent of the recent accusations and Rizzo takes advantage of the differences between Petco and Wrigley the Cubs might actually have the beginings of a good infield.

A Couple of Metal Cards

Following my blog's emphasis on cards made of "alternative" materials, this week I bring you two different cards made of metal.

The first is my second printing plate: Bobby Parnell 2009 Ticket to Stardom (If anyone has the base version of this card, #216, up for trade let me know!)

I picked this up from Anthony over at the site formerly known as Mike Pelfrey Collectibles.  I would suggest you head over there, especially if you are a Met fan, since he is selling off his collection.  I have probably bought about 50 cards from him since he started selling them a while ago.  He also has some non-Mets autos and game used left too.

I am hoping that Parnell develops into a solid closer for the Mets after K-Rod leaves.  Perhaps even this season.

The second card comes from a group break held over at Cardboard Collections several months ago.  One of the boxes in the break was from a set I had never heard of before: Stars 'N Steel.  Basically every card in the set was printed on a fully metal plate.  Colby was gracious enough to send me this Kerry Wood when no Mets came out of that box (fortunately no one had claimed the Cubs).  They look better in real life, but my scanner could not do a better job than these shots from COMC.com.

Even though Wood did not turn out to have a prolonged career as a starter, he has turned himself into a successful relief pitcher and has not been injured much since making the switch.  I thought it was cool that he took less money to come back to the Cubs and look forward to seeing him out at Wrigley in 2011.

Finally, if anyone out there has any of the following Chicle, let me know!
#69     Jose Reyes
#248     Tom Seaver
#249     Nolan Ryan
#320     Josh Thole SP

Card of the Day: Anderson Hernandez Printing Plate

2006 Upper Deck Artifacts #88
Anderson Hernandez
Materials: Aluminum and Magenta Ink

The Card:

Now most Met fans never had serious offensive hopes for Anderson Hernandez, but I have to admit I always thought his hitting for average in the minors might translate to a better-than-Rey-Ordonez hitter. He has shown flashes of offensive competency in the majors, but at this point I don't think anyone believes he has enough skills with the bat to be more than a backup.

On the other hand, his skills with the glove were never in doubt. Too bad those skills led to injury in what was probably his best shot at winning the starting second base job and a significant piece of the Mets.

When this card was made there was still hope, at least in my mind, that Hernandez might be the next starting second baseman for the Mets. That was a simpler time, before the much maligned Luis Castillo came to New York and got an even more maligned four year deal.

Interestingly enough, Hernandez ended up back on the Mets last season playing SS in the absence of Jose Reyes and will likely remain with the Mets as a bench player or a minor leaguer waiting for an injury this season.

The Aluminum:

Aluminum is such a versatile material used so often in manufacturing industry. Who knew it would eventually be a part of the card collecting industry? It certainly is though, and since the printing plates are 1/1 issues they are quite valuable even when the player is a backup like Anderson Hernandez (though there are always deals to be had). There are actually five printing plates of each card, but only one in each color: magenta, cyan, yellow, and black.

For some additional information on elemental aluminum check out this site.

Some of the information on printing plates was obtained from this cool blog entry.

PS: Want a reason to actually root for or against a team in spring training? Check out the following contest over at The Great Orioles Autograph Project.

PPS: If anyone has a normal base card version of this printing plate up for trade, please let me know!