2009 SP Legendary Cuts Cubs...The End

The craziness the was 2008 Legendary Cuts continued the final year of 2009.  The set size remained the same: 100 cards of current players and 100 more cards, short prints, of actually Legendary players plus some historical figures.  Bummed that Martin Van Buren didn't make the 2008 checklist?  Be bummed no more--he made the cut in 2009.

The cards feature a postage stamp design.  It was fine, I suppose.  But they also have a variety of color shades; not fine.  Ever wonder what Derrek Lee would look like if he played for the Reds?

Here you go.

What about Geovany Soto on the Rockies?

Would have looked like this.

 

 

 

There were six other active Cubs in the set.

The Cubs got gypped on the legends list, with only two.  For the only time in the brand's run, Ernie Banks was left out.  The short-printed legends were numbered to 550 (which is an unusual number).

 

The set in this form ended when Upper Deck lost it's MLB license after the 2009 season.  It has come back as a high-priced set .  The cards have no picture but a large cut signature.  Who wants to drop $175 for a one card box?  Not me.

So I guess I'm done with SP Legendary Cuts.

Feeling A Little Guilty With This One

I've added another Billy Williams card to the collection, and I added alittle guilt, too.

First, the card...

 

 

...this big beauty is from the 1967 Dexter Press set. These cards are big, 5 1/2" by 7" big. And they're full color and glossy--really nice cards. The cards were part of a giveaway sponsored by Coke. If you collected enough Coke bottle caps that had baseball players' pictures, you could redeem them for a team set of 12 cards. The Fleer Sticker Project has detailed posts about the cards here and one of the photographers here.

The backs are pretty plain--just the basic player information and no stats.

So that's the card...now the guilt.

Usually these cards, especially for a Hall of Famer like Billy, will run $10-$20. For $1.99 I got this card plus five other Cubs. That gives me half the team set for a mere two bucks. Why such a good deal? Because the ebay seller didn't really know what he had.

The cards were listed as "Chicago Cubs 1967 5x7.5 Inch Photo Cards". "Dexter Press" was missing from the entire listing, which means that anyone with a saved search for these wouldn't have found out about them. Plus the size was listed incorrectly.

I was the only bidder, and I got a deal...and some guilt. I kinda feel like I took advantage of the seller. I knew what he had, but he didn't. Should I have sent him a message and told him about the Dexter Press label? Anyone else get themselves into the same type of situation, where you knew that you were getting a good deal due to the seller's lack of knowledge? Feel guilty about it?

I never messaged the seller and I'll have to live with the guilt of that and with six cards for two bucks.

Now that I've got half the set, I'll be slowly chasing the other six. I doubt I'll get the same bargain.

 

Added A Jacque Jones Jersey Card*

Notice the asterisk in the title?  Here is why it's there:

My goal with the relics is to add a card for each Cub player that had one issued during his time with the Cubs.  I'm getting close to being finished, and I saw that Jacque Jones had an Upper Deck jersey card in 2008.

Then I looked at the card---and faced a decision...

....Even though he already had two years in Chicago under his belt, Upper Deck decided to ignore that and pretend he still played for the Twins.  The two pictures on the front show his in a Twins uniform.  The jersey piece is from a Twins uniform.  But he was now on the Cubs, hence the Cubs logo.

What a mish-mashed mess.

I dug around some more and found a few jersey cards from 2006-his first year with the Cubs...and

...same thing.  Both Upper Deck and Fleer had the Cubs name or logo on the card, but showed him as a Twin.

So what do I do?  Four different relics from his time with the Cubs, featuring a Cubs logo/name, but Twins pictures and pieces?

I bought the cheapest one I could get...$3.40 delivered...

....Jacque Jones* of the Minnesotago Cubwins.

2008 SP Legendary Cuts Cubs

The first Legendary Cuts set was released in 2001.  For seven years the set was made up of hall of famers and other great retired players.  That makes sense in a set called Legendary Cuts; you know, legendary players.

In 2008 the set Jumped the Shark.

For the first time, the set included active players.  Sorry, but Carlos Zambrano is not legendary. Psycho, yes; legendary, no.  And even worse, the active players made up the 100 card base set while the actual legendary players were short-printed.  Jumping the shark even more, Upper Deck went all Allen and Gintery by making the first 46 short prints non-baseball players.  You want a Claude Monet or Richard Nixon--then we've got the set for you.

The sad part is I really like the design of the cards.  Too bad I end up with Alfonso Soriano along side Billy Williams.

Four Cubs were included in the active player base set:

Four more Legendary Cuts regulars were in the SPs, actual Legendary players

Topps 1969 - 2012 Complete Set Prices

Here is my monthly looks at Topps set prices for all of the sets that I own.  Usually I get the prices on the first of the month, but these are from January 2nd.

The prices were generally lower--I suppose not too many people were buying big ticket items the past few days, leaving bargains for those who had some cash left over after Christmas.

To buy one of each will set you back $6,345.08, which is down $167 from December.

Here's an odd fact: I've been collecting this data for three and a half years now and the average price for all the sets over that time is $6,376.51--only a $31 difference from this month's average.

YEAR	Jan. 2	Dec. 1	Nov. 1	12 Mo. Avg.
1969	$1,044.78	$1,083.19	$1,056.38	$1,183.48
1970	$995.20	$1,134.00	$918.80	$958.12
1971	$717.40	$968.30	$836.87	$772.97
1972	$930.60	$842.52	$1,023.22	$1,016.60
1973	$414.50	$522.99	$278.91	$398.25
1974	$177.20	$185.70	$337.40	$238.73
1975	$291.95	$364.71	$328.01	$326.87
1976	$416.28	$175.57	$164.81	$191.40
1977	$143.00	$104.53	$174.38	$136.03
1978	$109.49	$84.05	$79.40	$97.26
1979	$79.60	$84.88	$68.60	$85.93
1980	$61.39	$58.15	$61.40	$65.90
1981	$33.79	$32.56	$29.67	$33.10
1982	$48.18	$28.89	$34.89	$41.65
1983	$30.79	$27.80	$44.56	$33.36
1984	$18.18	$17.14	$14.30	$25.03
1985	$28.79	$23.32	$34.52	$29.98
1986	$21.80	$9.50	$21.93	$17.10
1987	$14.88	$4.54	$5.74	$9.19
1988	$9.37	$5.30	$11.70	$9.44
1989	$10.98	$8.58	$9.10	$8.22
1990	$12.59	$11.24	$8.20	$9.93
1991	$21.09	$9.53	$10.60	$11.74
1992	$6.59	$27.58	$20.99	$12.37
1993	$25.99	$22.60	$32.88	$25.23
1994	$23.08	$21.29	$19.65	$21.98
1995	$44.95	$27.76	$34.12	$38.72
1996	$26.01	$24.81	$17.91	$21.71
1997	$51.28	$44.40	$42.01	$45.62
1998	$44.94	$30.69	$57.19	$42.32
1999	$25.81	$40.00	$25.99	$26.41
2000	$23.11	$19.99	$21.99	$20.99
2001	$48.59	$59.49	$55.30	$56.04
2002	$48.39	$45.91	$45.78	$38.40
2003	$42.80	$38.38	$35.02	$37.26
2004	$22.00	$27.88	$27.78	$28.40
2005	$33.08	$40.18	$24.14	$31.05
2006	$24.03	$33.14	$22.93	$26.01
2007	$22.49	$25.07	$23.26	$22.24
2008	$34.19	$48.17	$25.49	$30.15
2009	$57.35	$34.02	$46.82	$48.29
2010	$37.43	$27.45	$21.69	$30.09
2011	$28.10	$36.29	$32.09	$32.96
2012	$43.08	$50.80	$49.12	$39.96

State of the Collection: Goals for 2013

I have been setting yearly goals for myself the past few years, which helps to keep me focused. As my collection has grown, I've kind of settled into a routine, which makes coming up with new goals more difficult. Most of my goals are just a continuation from the previous year. I don't think that's a bad thing, its just kind of boring.

GOAL #1: Add the following Cubs team sets as they are released: Topps flagship, Heritage, Opening Day, Factory Team set, Bowman, Allen and Ginter, Chrome, Gypsy Queen, and Update.

GOAL #2: Add the complete sets of the flagship, update, and Allen and Ginter.

GOAL #3: Add an autograph and/or relic card for any current Cub that is not already in my collection. Last year I stayed away from all the flagship autograph and relic cards, adding only new guys. I'm happy with that decision and will continue going in that direction.

GOAL #4: Continue adding to the player collections, with a bigger focus on Darwin Barney and Billy Williams. I still need that '68 Williams OPC card. I'd also like to work on adding some Sandberg cards. I know that there are a ton of oddballs for him out there.

GOAL #5: Add one or two more T206 cards. Last year I bought my first three -- Tinker, Evers, and Chance. Adding a couple more Cubs each year is a long-term goal. Maybe some day I'll end up with all of them!

GOAL #6: Add odd-ball sets. I plan to keep up my daily search of ebay for these.

GOAL #7: Enjoy working on goals 1-6. I'm in trouble when I can't meet this goal.


 

State of the Collection....Looking Back on Last Year's Goals

Happy New Year!!  May 2013 be a prosperous year for you and may your favorite team finished just behind the 2013 World Champion Chicago Cubs!

Each year on January 1, I look back on the goals I set for the previous year and grade myself.

Here's what I wrote a year ago along with my grades and comments in red (after all, I'm a teacher and I still use a red pen to correct my students' work).

Goal #1: Keep up with the new releases. Topps cranks 'em out, I scoop 'em up. That's just the way it is. Warts and all, Topps is baseball cards. I'll continue to add all of my usual suspects. I'll wait and see on any of the new lines, though Fan Favorites is coming back and I do plan to add those to the collection.
Grade: A    
Comment:  This was made much easier for me thanks to BrentandBecca.  I love getting everything though one dealer and in one shipment.

Goal #2: Ease off on the parallels and inserts. I tried in 2011, but when the Platinum diamonds came out, I fell off the wagon. This year I'm going to stay sober....for the most part. I plan to get any insert Cub cards, but no more relics, autographs, fake patches, and parallel sets.
Grade: A  
Comment: In 2012 I didn't stumble and stuck to the plan of buying only autographs and relics of players missing from my collection.  I really didn't need any more relic cards of Marlon Byrd!

Goal #3: Finish the Cubs team-issued set from 2002. I have three cards left and for over a month, not one has seen the light of day. I will continue to hunt them down!
Grade: A
Comment:  One by one, the missing three showed up.  In fact, a reader was nice enough to send me the Lee Smith card I needed.

Goal #4: Add more autographs I picked up several last year and plan to keep that up this year. Instead of adding the entire autograph set from Topps flagship, I plan to only pick up cards of players that I have no autograph of. That way I don't end up with four Tyler Colvin autos. One should have been plenty!
Grade: A
Comment:  I went a little crazy with this one and now my autograph collection is over 100 cards.

Goal #5: More Oddball team sets Every day I do a search on ebay for "Cubs Team set" and I've found some interesting items. My oddball binder is bursting and I will probably need to start a second binder this year. I hope to fill it!
Grade: B+
Comment:  This one gets a little harder each year.  As I do my daily ebay search, I'm having a harder time finding sets not already in the collection. But I was able to add some oddballs like the Shakeys Pizza cards and Sega Card Gen.

Goal #6: Keep adding to the player collections of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and Darwin Barney. I stumbled into the player collection arena last year and started to put together a decent assortment of cards. My Barney collection is off to a nice start, so I'm curious to see how it will play out....and how he will play out.
Grade: A
Comment:  The collection has increased to the point to where I needed a second box for the cards....and Darwin Barney played out very nicely in 2012.

Goal #7: Continue sharing, daily. After three years I've settled into a decent routine for blogging and see no reason to slow down.
Grade: A
Comment:  There were 365 days in the 2012 and 368 posts.

I had a nice year!!