Monthly Mailbag - April 2025
- John
- Apr 30
- 5 min read
With the large acquisition of another collection last month, I didn't do a lot of purchasing on ebay this month. I was able to pick up a handful of cards from ebay, but my primary focus was another large acquisition. Here is what I was able to get from ebay this month:
2023 Leaf Trinity - Pre-Production Proofs #NNO, SN1
I'm still not completely sold on these pre-production proofs, but if I can buy them cheap enough, I'll add them to my collection. They seem kind of gimmicky, and I'm almost certain that the majority of these are distributed to just one or two people, but these are now in my collection.
2024 Leaf Vivid
This is another case of a great looking card, but they've overcooked it. There are no less than 49 different parallels of this card. All of them are serial numbered to 10 or less, with many of them being 1/1s. I'll add these to the collection as they come up for sale when the price makes sense. I'm not planning on spending a fortune on these though just because they're serial numbered so low. The overall quality of these cards is really nice though! I suspect the perceived value of these would most likely be more if they were licensed.
2023 Panini Immaculate - Hall of Fame Induction Signatures #HOF-SR, SN10. The foil that Panini used on this card is the card's main redeeming quality. The holofoil looks phenomenal in-hand. I do like that this card highlights his Hall of Fame induction on the front of the card. And the back has a nice little blurb about his eight Gold Glove awards and the video clips on ESPN of him doing his thing at the hot corner.
2024 Leaf Press Pass Premium - Retro Base Printing Plate Black #RB-83, SN1. I don't typically chase printing plates, especially printing plates of unlicensed cards. But I was able to pick this one up this month for next to nothing so I figured I'd go ahead and add it to the collection. I do like the image that Leaf used for this card as it shows Rolen showing a little emotion while on the field early on during his time with Philadelphia.
2024 Leaf Press Pass Premium - Retro Base Reflector Prismatic RWB Pre-Production Proof #NNO, SN1. Similar to the pre-production proofs above, I'm still not quite sure what to think about these. But since I picked up the printing plate of this card, and this one popped up inexpensively enough, I figured I'd add this one to the collection. I do like the red, white, and blue theme of this card. Which makes me want to track down the full production version of this card.
2024 Panini Donruss - Signature Series #SS-SR. I was starting to think I'd never find a good copy of this card. I have picked up several of the different parallels of this card, but for some reason I just could not land this card. Perhaps it was because I was being cheap and refused to pay too much for the card. But patience paid off once again and I was able to find this card this month for a great price. Like many of these cards, the card looks much shinier in-hand than it does in this scan!
2024 Panini Select #72. Even though the design of these Select cards doesn't change much from year to year, I am excited to see this card. With this being Rolen's first year included in the Select release, I had to have this card. I'm also happy to see Scott added to these cards as a Cardinal! It is a little unfortunate that the card is landscape oriented since that's my least favorite for baseball cards. I feel that they could have included a larger picture of Scott on the card if it was a portrait oriented card.
2024 Topps Chrome - On The Spot Die-Cut Autographs #OSA-SR, SN50. There is a lot to like about this card. The first obvious thing is that it is die-cut. For me, this screams 90s Pacific. Another really great thing is the autograph - it is on-card! For a card like this, even the landscape orientation works because of the image, the ball in the design, and the die-cut area of the card. They all just look great together!
2023 Leaf Trinity - Steel-Carbon Shimmer Blue #S-68, SN9. I added several of the pre-production proof cards from this release this month, but I was also able to find this actual card. These look far better in-hand than they do in these scans because of the way the light bounces off of the foil on the front. The manufactured rarity of these cards keeps them in fairly low demand, which means I was able to add this one this month for next to nothing.
2025 Leaf Seasons In The Sun - Signature Season Holo Pink #SSE-SR1, SN8. This is the first 2025 card that I've added to the collection. Leaf is still riding the parallel train full force, and as such, they released so many different Rolen cards in Seasons In The Sun. Overall, I like the design of this card. I'm not completely sold on the pink parallel, but it is the cracked ice foil that I really enjoy. I like that Rolen is featured as a Cardinal on this card (even though you can't see the STL on his helmet. One more observation on this card...it's really thick! Coming in its very own 180pt magnetic one-touch right out of the box is nice though, because I don't have a lot of extra super thick toploaders sitting around here to put these in.
2005 Donruss - Power Alley Blue Die Cut #PA-23, SN100. Any month that I can add another card from 2005 is a good month in my book. Especially since there are 1,400 Rolen cards on my checklist for 2005 alone. This card is my 491st card from 2005, so I have a really long way to go. Unfortunately, a large portion of those cards are only parallels of cards. Regardless, when I can add a card like this for just a couple of bucks, I'll do it. I really like the foil they used on the front of these cards. And of course, the die-cut is a great feature!
Overall, it was a pretty solid month for The Rolen Collection. I also acquired even more cards from Ron's collection that I didn't feature here. I'm not sure if I'll be able to add anything next month, so I'll likely cover some of my favorites that I was able to pick up from his collection. Be sure to check back to read about those!
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