This month started out with a strong start from a single mailday and just kind of stalled from there. I was only able to add 9 cards to the collection this month, bringing my overall total to 3,266. I think part of the slow down was due to Rolen's National Baseball Hall of Fame induction this month, so his card prices received another HOF bump. Here is what I was able to pick up for the month of July:
2000 Topps Gold Label - Class 3 Gold #9, SN100. I was able to add five different cards to the collection this month in one transaction. A fellow collector from Instagram, Devin, reached out to me and said that he had some Rolen cards he was going to list for sale, but he wanted to check with me to see if I needed them or not. Of the six cards he offered up, I ended up needing five of them! This one here is becoming harder and harder to find. They are serial numbered to just 100 copies, and if recent sales are any indication of Rolen's stock, it points to these low numbered cards steadily increasing in value over time. Which makes perfect sense, given the fact that Rolen is a Hall of Famer, these cards look incredible, they are known to be scarce, and they just aren't making any more of them to fill all the wantlists out there!
2005 Donruss Prime Patches - All-Star Materials Team Logo Patch #ASM-15, SN53. This is the second card I was able to obtain from Devin. If you have been following along with my collection at all, you already know that there was an absurd number of Rolen cards produced in 2005. This happens to be one of the MANY cards put out by Donruss that I needed. It has a weird serial numbering; numbered to just 53 copies. I'm not sure what Donruss was thinking there, but I do like the patch they included on this card! I'm a sucker for the bright yellow from the Cardinals bat on the front of their jerseys. Definitely happy to have this one in the collection now!
2005 Donruss Prime Patches - Major League Materials Quad Swatch Prime #MLM-34, SN8. The third card I got from Devin was this beautiful patch card. Another one from Donruss in 2005 and they didn't hold back any punches. Look at the patch pieces used on this one: a couple of pieces from either the number or nameplate, the edge of the Phillies logo, and a nice big chunky piece of the Phillies logo from the front of the jersey! All of that plus the fact that there are only eight copies of this card out there, made it a no brainer for me to get from Devin in this deal!
2005 Upper Deck Reflections - Dual Signatures #ABSR. This was the fourth card in the deal with Devin. I've passed on these cards so many times in the past because they are sticker autos. But he made me a really good deal on these so I couldn't pass it up. Not to mention the fact that this card features two of the best players to ever man the hot corner! Having this card in the collection kind of makes me want to dig up all of the others that go with it along with all of their parallels. As you know, I love having complete runs of cards. I just really enjoy how they look when they are all together.
2005 Upper Deck Reflections - Dual Signatures #DWSR. The final card I got from Devin this month is another dual auto. This time Rolen is featured with David Wright. One of the things that I like about these cards is that Rolen is on the bottom of all of them. Something about the positioning of him there, being uniform across all of the different pairings, makes my OCD happy.
1998 Leaf - Fractal Materials Die Cuts #199 CL, PZ, SN3250, PR50. This card has been nearly impossible to track down! It speaks loudly to my collector's heart though. Although it is serial numbered to 3,250 copies on the back of the card, only the first 50 copies received this awesome die-cut treatment. With the addition of this card to the collection, I have just one more card remaining to find until I can finally stop looking for all of these different variations.
2007 Finest - Refractors Black #23, SN99. Like many refractors, this card looks much better in person than it does in this flat scan. I really enjoy the image that Topps used for this card (and all of the other parallels of the card). One of the main reasons I have waited 16 years to add this card to my collection comes down to one simple thing - price. A card this "new", numbered to 99, I just couldn't bring myself to pay too much for it.
2017 Topps Rediscover Topps Buyback 1999 Silver #453. I have a love/hate thing for these cards. To me, it seems like a lazy way for Topps to sell more cards. On the other hand, I'm a completionist, so if it exists, I kind of want it. (Except anything produced by Leaf 2019 or newer). These Rediscover cards don't have an actual checklist, that I know of, so finding them in the wild is always a slight thrill for me, even though I have the original card without the added foil lettering.
2023 Topps 206 - Autographs #NNO. This is a card I was sleeping on. I haven't looked at any recent releases in quite some time, so I didn't even know this card existed until these surfaced on ebay. I saw a few of these pop up for sale, but ultimately passed on them due to the quality of the autograph. The ink on all of them has been nice, but some of the autographs look like Scott was signing them while riding a roller coaster - they're a little shaky and don't look like the autograph I've grown accustom to. It could also be due to the fact that these cards are tobacco sized so there is less area overall to sign. Another thing I really like about this card is the fact that the autograph is on-card!
That's it for this month. It wasn't too crazy as far as new acquisitions, but I'm working on something that could be earth shattering (and time consuming) for next month! Be sure to check back soon to see the updates to the collection!
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