Record Pin Haul During The 2017 Little League World Series

40.  That’s how many new pins I obtained for my collection this year.  I believe that is a new record.  Some of them I got for free, others I bought, and I even took a handful of my Sports Card Info pins to use for trading.  It really helps to have your own line of pins when it comes to trading.  Most collectors have never seen them before.

Every year more and more businesses in the surrounding area make pins.  I live about an hour away from Williamsport and a few businesses in my town like Budget Bakery and Murray Motors Chevrolet has pins.  As they should, considering not everyone visiting the Little League World Series can stay in Williamsport.

Over the past few years, Little League and many of it’s corporate sponsors have become heavily reliant on these electronic wristbands.  These are used for various activities and assist in getting you eligible for giveaways.  From my point of view and for what I’m there for, I find them to be intrusive.  But for the kids and the things they use them for I can see a reason for having them.  Their activities can keep them busy all day long.  And I think that’s the point.  Personally, I’m there for pins.

After spending a few hours on the Little League campus scoring as many free pins as possible and making some trades with other collectors and ushers, it was time to head downtown.  I hit up the Chamber of Commerce, The Clothier, Bullfrog Brewery, and Genetti Hotel.  All of them have pins.  Williamsport’s Golden Strip is loaded with businesses that I’ve never had pins from before.  KFC, Dolly’s Diner, Olive Garden, Aquarius Pools, Kriger Fence, The Taber Museum, and Bimbo Bakeries are all new places I got pins from.  You could easily spend all ten days of the Little League World Series hunting for pins.

Merchandise for the 2017 MLB Little League Classic featuring the Pirates and Cardinals is available over at Little League.  I got a new t-shirt and a few pins.  I’ve been to Historic Bowman Field many times.  For the most part, that game was for Little League players and their families.  A local lottery was held for Lycoming County residents so some fans from the general public could attend.  I hope they make this game an annual event.

One day it would be great to see Topps have a corporate booth setup at Little League.

I’ll do anything for a free pin.

Red Sox ’17 Topps Stadium Club Auto Contest!

This contest is for a Henry Owens 2017 Topps Stadium Club Auto.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, August 25, 2017 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Guess The Set – August 18, 2017

Drop what you’re doing.  Forget about those TPS reports.  Can you Guess The Set?  Tonight around 8:00 p.m. EST I’ll post the correct answer in the comment section and on Twitter.  Good luck!

2017 Topps Chrome Baseball Box Break & Review

Collectors enjoy chrome-based rookies.  That’s no shocker.  2017 has had one of the best MLB rookie classes.  Aaron Judge may have calmed down a bit, but his cards continue to bring in top dollars.  Dodgers fans have had a blast watching Cody Bellinger go yard night after night.  Chrome is king!  Its interesting to see how much more someone is willing to spend on an unnumbered Chrome base rookie autograph compared to something similar from another product.  That player’s Chrome rookie almost always comes out on top.

The Topps design team has to think long and hard about the design of their classic flagship brand.  Its something that collectors will see all year across at least four different products.  One aspect that needs to be considered is how that design will convert over to Chrome stock.  Especially when it comes to distinguishing between the array of colored parallels.  Trust me, there are a lot of parallels to pull.

You’ll find (200) cards make up the base set.  Everything in this product has it’s share of parallels.  The photo variations are easy to spot as the most common versions have a refractor-like finish.  To be 100% sure whether or not you have a photo variation checking the CMP code can help.  Photo variation’s CMP code end in #57 versus base with #25.

If you weren’t familiar with 1987 Topps Baseball, by the end of this year you definitely will be.  That classic design has been everywhere in celebration of it’s 30th anniversary.  Chrome versions of these cards look awesome especially when it comes to the parallels and on-card autographs.

My favorite cards out of the entire product are the Then & Now inserts.  These came out nice and designing them horizontally was the way to go.  I’ve always enjoyed seeing older cards pictured on newer ones.  The parallels and on-card autographs of these really standout.

Topps has already unveiled what the 2018 flagship design will look like.  The wave by the team logo is cool and the pixels breaking apart looks neat.  An insert set featuring pixel-themed player images would be fun.  Making players look like characters from a retro Nintendo game would really bring back some memories.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Brett Phillips RC Refractor Auto #’ed/499
• Seth Lugo RC Auto

Parallels

• Eduardo Rodriguez Negative Refractor
• Brad Ziegler Purple Refractor #’ed/299
• Gavin Cecchini RC Prism Refractor
• Ryan Braun Prism Refractor
• Ivan Nova Prism Refractor
• Chris Owings Prism Refractor
• Ryan Schimpf Refractor
• Anthony Rizzo Refractor
• Yoan Moncada RC Refractor
• Kris Bryant Refractor
• Joe Mauer Refractor
• Andrew Toles RC Refractor
• Chad Pinder RC Refractor
• Kenley Jansen Refractor

Inserts

• Matt Carpenter Bowman Chrome Then & Now #19
• Alex Bregman Freshman Flash #10
• Luke Weaver Freshman Flash #16
• Willson Contreras Future Stars #2
• Nomar Mazara Future Stars #8
• Francisco Lindor Future Stars #10
• Manny Machado 1987 Topps #4
• Yoan Moncada 1987 Topps #20
• Francisco Lindor 1987 Topps #11
• Jacob deGrom 1987 Topps #21

Notable Rookies

• Yoan Moncada #75

Columbus Clippers ’17 Topps Pro Debut Relic Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a 2017 Topps Pro Debut Fragments of the Farm Columbus Clippers Game-Used Base from Huntington Park Relic.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, August 18, 2017 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Guess The Set – August 11, 2017

Can you Guess The Set?  Tonight around 8:00 p.m. EST I’ll post the correct answer in the comment section and on Twitter.  Good luck!

Card of the Day: Aaron Judge 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter X #172