Topps 582 Montgomery Club & 1952 Bowman Baseball Card Pack Pins Arrived This Week

This is just a quick post to show-off my latest trade.  I was able to acquire a set of (3) Little League pins that look like packs of 1952 Bowman Baseball.  They’re large in size, but nowhere near as big as the 1954 Bowman Baseball pins I received not too long ago.  I made this trade through the Little League Pin Traders Club group on Facebook.  Very cool!

Members of the Topps 582 Montgomery Club began to receive their collectible pin this week too.

Pin Highlight: Olive Garden 2017 Little League World Series Pin

Who doesn’t love the Olive Garden?  That list is fairly short.  Their pasta, soup, salad, and bread sticks are all delicious.  Its been almost two months since the Little League World Series came to an end, and there are still some pins that have yet to popup online.  One such pin comes from the Olive Garden.

During the 2016 Little League World Series the Olive Garden in Williamsport had pins.  A few of them have showed up for sale, but not recently.  This year’s pin has been seen even less.  You would think these would be all over the place given that the Olive Garden is a popular restaurant.  Especially when the world comes to Williamsport and people need to eat.  I think the price has a lot to do with it.  The Olive Garden charged $10 for one of these pins, or it was free with the purchase of a dessert.  Considering their pins are very small in size, that’s a lot of money.  Little was done to advertise them too.  It was basically word of mouth.  You know no advertising was done when you see a local fence company (Kriger Fence) have more pins show up on the secondary market compared to the Olive Garden.  Trust me, more people passed through the Olive Garden during the Little League World Series than Kriger Fence.

Most businesses in Williamsport don’t sell their Little League pins over the internet.  Almost all of them need to be acquired in person or on eBay.  Limited availability like this can drive up the demand for certain pins.  Which pins won’t end up surfacing that much is a total shot in the dark.  Fifty years from now we could learn that a pin was made for the ’17 LLWS and only be hearing about it for the first time.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: 2016 LLWS “Best Buds” Boomer & Dugout Two-Pin Set

Boomer and Dugout.  Two mascots that rule the town of Williamsport, PA.  Boomer being the mascot of the Williamsport Crosscutters and Dugout the mascot of the Little League World Series.  It only seems natural that both would appear on a pin.

Outside of eBay and the Little League Store’s website, Little League pins for the most part need to be acquired in person.  Even the Little League Store’s website doesn’t sell every pin you’d find in their physical location.  This pin is a perfect example of that.

In August 2016, Little League and the Crosscutters came together and made this two-pin set.  The half with Boomer could only be obtained directly from the Crosscutters, while the Dugout side could be found at the Little League Museum.  (500) Boomer pins were given out to Crosscutters fans on 8/26/16.  I think its safe to say (500) Dugout pins were made too.  Considering they go together, it doesn’t make sense to make less or more of either side.  One set recently sold on the secondary market for $58.  Not too bad considering the cards they come affixed to value each pin at $5.

Flashback Product of the Week: 2002-03 Upper Deck LEGO Sports

Before OYO and C3 Toys showed up, the only sports licensed minifigures on the block came from a team-up between LEGO, Upper Deck, and the NBA.  This all took place between 2002-2003.  It was a short-lived relationship, but created some unconventional items that can easily stand out in your basketball collection.

LEGO made a handful of NBA licensed building toys.  Some contain generic NBA minifigures, while others are player specific.  A majority of the player specific minifigures can be found in the NBA Collector Sets.

There are eight different NBA Collector Sets.  Each one comes packaged with (3) minifigures, (3) stands, and (3) Upper Deck cards.  They include:

• Tim Duncan, Ray Allen, Paul Gasol #3560
• Tony Parker, Antoine Walker, Shaquille O’Neal #3561
• Gary Payton, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki #3562
• Toni Kukoc, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant #3563
• Steve Francis, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson #3564
• Steve Nash, Jerry Stackhouse, Paul Pierce #3565
• Jalen Rose, Kevin Garnett, Peja Stojakovic #3566
• Allan Houston, Tracy McGrady, Chris Webber #3567

Every minifigure within the NBA Collector Set has a corresponding Upper Deck card.  You’ll find (1) gold parallel inside each pack.  Randomly inserted are autographs of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, and Kobe Bryant.  When I mean randomly, its almost to the point where they don’t even exist.  You rarely see them.  The autographs aren’t serial numbered, but the print run on them has to be extremely low.  I sent an e-mail to Upper Deck attempting to obtain an actual print run, but all I got back was “We are not releasing print run information on those, rather letting the market determine scarcity levels.”

Instead of using a regular photograph, I think Upper Deck should’ve used an animated image of the player’s LEGO minifigure.  That would’ve been something different, at least for the autographs.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: Chicago Cubs Sports Crate Bringin’ the Heat Pin

In May, collectors who purchased a Sports Crate began to receive their box full of goodies.  For each month of the MLB season, you can have a box of team-oriented items sent straight to your front door.  As of right now, only ten MLB teams are available.  You can pay $39.99 per crate or $179.99 for the whole season.

Given that the people behind Loot Crate are the same ones behind Sports Crate, I think this has a lot of fun potential.  The items inside are exclusive to Sports Crate.  Even Topps has made special cards for them.

This isn’t the first sports-themed subscription box service.  A few years ago, Collector Crate gave it a shot but quickly went out of business.  Some collectors have been a fan of The Loot Locker.  But everything inside a Loot Locker box has been around for a while and isn’t anything new.  In my opinion, you need to put some serious money behind a service like this in order for it to be successful.  Exclusive in-demand items are key.  I look forward to seeing what else they roll out.  Hopefully the Phillies are coming soon.  It would be neat if Sports Crate came to the National Sports Collectors Convention and sold special boxes.

Loot Crate is known for including pins in their boxes.  This seems to have carried over to Sports Crate too.  “Bringin’ the Heat” was the theme for May, so each box came with a team logo pin surrounded in fire.  On the back of the pin’s package it says “The original Bringin’ the Heat pin was designed by your friends at Sports Crate.  It was created to be either worn or displayed.  Since there are a limited number of these in existence be sure to take good care of it.  You never know what it will be worth someday.”  They’ve been selling for $13 on the secondary market.  I highly doubt they’ll ever increase in value, but its nice of them to give you a heads up.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: 2016 LLWS – The Crazy Tomato Pin

I’m really excited for the Little League World Series this year.  On August 20th, the Pirates and Cardinals will play a regular season game at BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field in Williamsport.  Only Little League players and their families are invited.  It would be great if Topps made a Topps Now card to commemorate this event.

The other great part of the Little League World Series is the endless amount of pins.  One of the wackier pins I own comes from a restaurant located in Williamsport called The Crazy Tomato.  They’ve been in business for 10+ years, but I can only remember their pins first popping-up in 2015.  I like their tomato mascot dude.  It reminds me of a monster the Power Rangers would encounter or Attack of the Killer Tomatos.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: 2017 NFL Draft Pittsburgh Steelers Dan Rooney Tribute Pin

Owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, passed away on April 13, 2017.  He was the son of Steelers founder Art Rooney.  Owners typically don’t have that many cards, but Dan Rooney had a few.

His most popular cards include:

• 2000 Goal Line Art Hall of Fame #203
• 2000 Goal Line Art Hall of Fame Auto #203
• 2000 Goal Line Art Hall of Fame Gold Auto #’ed/100
• 2000 Topps Hall of Fame Class of 2000 #4
• 2000 Topps Hall of Fame Class of 2000 Auto

In honor of Dan Rooney’s passing, Steelers staff wore the above pin during the 2017 NFL Draft.  I don’t have a problem with the Steelers wanting to pay tribute to Dan Rooney with this pin.  From a collecting standpoint it could easily cause some problems though.

With Dan Rooney passing away only two weeks prior to the start of the draft, there probably wasn’t enough time to design a new tribute pin from scratch.  Instead they had to improvise with what they had.  The Steelers simply took one of their misty gold lapel pins and pinned it to a green ribbon.

Does anyone else see a potential problem here?  What stops someone from buying a misty gold lapel pin for $4.95 and pinning it to easily accessible green ribbon which can be found at any craft store?  The answer is nothing.  Anyone could do that while attempting to spin a tale that it came from a Steelers staff member during the draft.

The odds of an authentic one showing up for sale are slim.  I highly doubt a large amount were put together.  It would be in poor taste if someone from the Steelers did try and make money off of it.  But it has been known to happen before.  I can imagine an authentic pin would fetch quite a bit more than $5.  The only way I’d trust that one of these Dan Rooney tribute pins is authentic is if I received one directly from a Steelers staff member.  Otherwise you’d never know.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: “Arnie’s Army” April 6, 2017 Masters Commemorative Button

Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus began the 2017 Masters with a ceremonial tee shot.  Many people in attendance received a commemorative “Arnie’s Army” button in honor of Arnold Palmer who passed away last fall.  For decades, Arnold Palmer had legions of fans who would follow him around the golf course.  This large group eventually went on to be known as “Arnie’s Army”.

It wasn’t uncommon to see “Arnie’s Army” members walking around wearing buttons to show their pride.  These buttons are quite collectible today.  As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for people to list this new button for sale.  The going rate is $80+ per button.  That is actually more than what some of the original buttons 50+ years old sell for.

Flashback Product of the Week: 1991 Score Mickey Mantle Dealer/Media Mailing List Set

Mickey Mantle hasn’t had any new cards made for about five years.  The Mantle Estate parted ways with Topps after 2012 claiming the market had been too saturated with his cards.  Personally, I believe it was all over money.  During that time, no manufacturer was allowed to print cards of the great #7.

His estate seems to be loosening up a bit.  This week we learned new Mickey Mantle cards are going to be offered through the Panini Eternal line of collectibles.  Panini can make cards of him, but none of them will contain a Yankees name/logo.  Mickey Mantle and the Yankees.  Yankees and Mickey Mantle.  They go together like peanut butter and jelly.  It looks odd.  Mickey Mantle would’ve fit well into the Topps Now program.  Unlicensed Mantle cards kinda makes the family look desperate.  Although Topps isn’t the only company to make cards of Mickey Mantle over the years, its the first manufacturer I think of when it comes to his stuff.

For a brief moment in time, it was possible to pull authentic on-card autographs of Mickey Mantle.  Today’s collectors are mostly likely use to seeing his autographed cards come in the form of cut signatures, but it didn’t start out like this.  Mr. Mantle was around long enough to see the start of pack inserted autographs before passing away in 1995.

Collectors opening packs of 1991 Score Series 2 have the opportunity to pull an autograph of Mickey Mantle.  They’re individually numbered out of 2,500.  I can’t tell you how many might be left in packs, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a few were still hiding in there.

In addition to those autographs, that second series also had seven Mickey Mantle inserts.  Score sent out a special version of these inserts to dealers, members of the media, and whoever else was on their mailing list.  All seven cards came packaged in a pinstripe promo pack.  The cards inside look almost identical to the ones found in the standard second series packs.  Other than the serial number, Score’s name on the back is surrounded by a red box.  Five thousand of these sets were produced.  I don’t believe its possible to find any Mickey Mantle autographs tucked away inside these promo packs.  Sealed promo packs cost about $20 each.

Flashback Product of the Week: 1988 Salt Lake City Trappers Team Issue

Minor League Baseball sets issued by teams today don’t carry much weight when it comes to the collecting world.  They’re drastically overproduced, and the players most likely already have cards in more in-demand products such as Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Bowman Draft, Bowman’s Best, Pro Debut, and Heritage MiLB.  I’m not saying there isn’t a market for them.  Today’s collectors just have more options.

During the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s is where you’ll find some of the more popular team issued sets.  Guys like Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, Jr., and even John Elway pictured in an Oneonta Yankees uniform all received Minor League Baseball cards predating their nationally issued rookies.  Depending on rarity and condition, these can be extremely valuable.

Baseball Cards Etc issued a team set in 1988 for the Salt Lake City Trappers.  Now they’re known as the Ogden Raptors.  At the time, actor Bill Murray owned five percent of the team.  It makes perfect sense that he received his own card.  His brother Brian is also featured on another card in the same set as well.  These two cards are literally the only reason why this set is continued to be talked about today.  None of the other players went on to have historic careers.

If you watched any of the World Series last year, you’d know what a huge baseball fan Bill Murray is.  He was rocking that t-shirt that said “I AIN’T AFRAID OF NO GOAT.”  The 1988 Salt Lake City Trappers team set is the first time Bill Murray was featured on cardboard.  It wouldn’t be his last though.  Over the years, other teams he’s been involved with have included him in their sets.  Here is a rundown of all the Bill Murray baseball cards you could add to your collection.

• Bill Murray/Brian Murray 1988 Salt Lake City Trappers Team Issue #2
• Bill Murray 1988 Salt Lake City Trappers Team Issue #29
• Bill Murray 1989 Salt Lake City Trappers Team Issue #29
• Bill Murray 1996 Butte Copper Kings Best #2
• Bill Murray 1998 Charleston RiverDogs Grandstand #19
• Bill Murray 2004 Brockton Rox #28
• Bill Murray 2008 St. Paul Saints Team Issue #15
• Bill Murray/Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Mayor 2012 Charleston RiverDogs Grandstand #36

Mr. Murray does have a handful of other cards from various entertainment products.  Leaf even made a cut signature of him in 2012 numbered to only (1).  Most collectors treat the card of him pictured alone from 1988 as his “rookie” card.  Three copies recently sold for $75 each.

I know one of these years we’re going to see Bill Murray show up in Allen & Ginter or Goodwin Champions.