My Other New 2015 Darwin Barney Card

My third 2015 Darwin Barney card doesn't show him as a Cub.  It doesn't even show his as a Los Angeles Dodger.

There he is in all his OKC splendor.  This is from the team set issued by the Oklahoma City Dodgers.

When Barney was traded last year, I had decided I wouldn't add any cards that show him with another team.  Sad circumstances have brought me a change of heart.  My original fear was that I would have to chance all sorts of cards and rainbows of him with the Dodgers.  That hasn't come to pass.  

This is the only card of Darwin that has been issued this year.  That's not a very tough rainbow to chase.  I'm also afraid it may be the final card ever issued.  The Dodgers DFA'ed him and no other team was interested.  He's not on their 40 man roster.  Since LA was on the hook for his $2.5 million salary, they decided to keep him in AAA, probably as insurance.

When the season is over, Barney will be a free agent.   I can't see him getting a couple million dollars from another team. It's possible that someone will sign him as a non-roster spring training invitee.  

Or, this could be the end of the line.

If that's the case, one non-Cub card in my collection won't be the end of the world.

Picked Up Some 2015 Barney Cards

I recently picked up three 2015 Darwin Barney cards.  I'll have two today and save the third for tomorrow.

Today's 2015 cards show Darwin as a Cub, though it was just over a year ago that he was traded.  How is that possible, you ask?

Buybacks.

Allen and Ginter is celebrating its 10th anniversary by throwing a stamp on 2-3 year old cards and calling it a collectible.  The top card is from 2012 and the framed mini on the bottom is from 2013.  Of course I have the originals in my collection.  But Topps suckered me with the 2015 date stamp.

Topps Complete Set Prices 1969 - 2015

Here is my monthly look at Topps complete set prices for all the years in which I own a set, 1969 - 2015.  The prices are from Ebay sold listings taken on August 4  The prices do not include shipping.

• There seemed to be alot of complete sets sold recently.  Usually I have to scroll down a bit on a page to find the five sets.  This month I hardly had to scroll at all.
• With all the sets being sold, prices went up.  It was a sellers month.
• If you want to buy one of each it will cost you $5.830.41, an increase of $518.28 over last month.

YEAR	Aug. 4	July 1	June 14	12 Mo. Avg.
1969	$1,094.52	$732.20	$1,066.41	$986.19
1970	$906.60	$907.40	$752.94	$999.67
1971	$603.17	$570.40	$656.54	$760.53
1972	$1,008.04	$970.00	$947.15	$1,036.76
1973	$322.61	$388.75	$354.55	$420.45
1974	$207.52	$202.94	$343.84	$227.81
1975	$305.21	$297.03	$259.73	$303.47
1976	$148.52	$179.90	$159.26	$162.01
1977	$124.46	$140.64	$131.90	$142.70
1978	$97.30	$82.54	$86.10	$98.44
1979	$66.00	$73.94	$79.70	$81.88
1980	$62.18	$48.50	$60.45	$68.56
1981	$40.73	$25.94	$31.80	$28.95
1982	$35.69	$33.41	$34.34	$34.49
1983	$33.19	$37.99	$30.10	$32.99
1984	$22.80	$20.55	$26.99	$21.20
1985	$20.19	$21.15	$30.09	$24.18
1986	$20.62	$8.55	$13.63	$15.59
1987	$6.68	$3.39	$8.46	$9.24
1988	$9.33	$5.61	$9.14	$8.07
1989	$3.70	$6.09	$11.20	$8.25
1990	$4.88	$8.30	$7.10	$9.29
1991	$6.15	$8.19	$13.69	$9.94
1992	$12.39	$8.82	$12.55	$10.75
1993	$22.52	$26.50	$20.29	$21.44
1994	$26.69	$24.48	$17.30	$21.99
1995	$23.19	$32.09	$22.70	$30.90
1996	$22.89	$10.50	$18.35	$20.07
1997	$37.17	$31.50	$47.07	$39.21
1998	$33.79	$28.98	$31.27	$33.51
1999	$86.18	$15.76	$25.96	$24.75
2000	$17.89	$21.27	$17.43	$19.10
2001	$41.60	$37.18	$34.79	$35.83
2002	$24.83	$21.73	$22.59	$27.34
2003	$24.60	$33.00	$34.91	$36.24
2004	$16.25	$17.78	$27.01	$26.54
2005	$20.79	$18.61	$21.82	$23.53
2006	$25.75	$20.59	$23.37	$27.09
2007	$15.79	$10.28	$12.39	$17.47
2008	$40.77	$24.30	$27.38	$28.87
2009	$45.37	$38.28	$36.49	$36.04
2010	$22.36	$14.26	$20.19	$20.06
2011	$22.47	$12.38	$24.57	$24.39
2012	$24.17	$12.25	$27.81	$25.54
2013	$28.30	$34.98	$28.23	$30.54
2014	$44.57	$43.25	$50.58	$43.70
2015	$49.89	$37.74

I Had to Make This

Topps picked a bad year to take the retired guys out of Ginter.  I guess that if you want to include Joe Buck and Thunderlips in a set, you have to take others out.  The vets got the boot this year.  Boo!

Ernie Banks has been in Ginter three previous times.  With his passing this past January, I was looking forward to seeing him included in as many products as possible this year, including Ginter.  I figured he was a slam dunk for A&G.

Nope.

Yep.

I did a very Topps thing and reused his picture.  This was from the 2006 Ginter card.

Ginter Relics

I've collected all of the Cubs relic cards in Ginter from the start in 2006.  I won't be stopping that streak this year.  I had just four cards to chase and it was a fairly easy chase.

The relics come in three different sets.  Relic set A has a full relic card with a vertical orientation.  The B set is also full, but is set horizontally.  Finally, there is a framed mini relic set.

 

Castro and Rizzo go full, vertical.  

Soler's card goes horizontal.  You can also see how they made the hole for the patch in the shape of a 10 for Ginter's tenth birthday.

 Castro was also included in the framed mini set.  For the first seven years of Ginter, all the relics were framed minis.  They always looked nice and were something unique to Ginter.  Too bad Topps added in the full relics in 2013.

Here's a look at ten year's worth of Ginter Cubs relics.  There are 47 total.  You can see how they exploded in 2011 and 2012.  When you get to the end it is obvious just how boring the full card relics are compared to the framed minis.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 13,765 Cubs cards from 105 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades. 

1900s - 1970s: Topps 1974 #607 Dave Rosello Rookie  That is a pretty mediocre group of shortstops!  Rosello played in 62 games for the Cubs in 1974, though most were at second base.  Glenn Beckert had been traded and Vic Harris was supposed to be the new guy.  He was terrible and Rosello got his chance.  He was terrible, too, hitting just .203.

1980s: 1986 Fleer Traded #51 Guy Hoffman The Cubs picked up Hoffman off of the White Sox scrap heap before the 1985 season.  He missed most of '85 with a bad elbow.  He joined the Cubs in late April, 1986 and had a fairly decent season.  His record was 6-2 making eight starts and 24 bullpen appearances. 

1990s: 1996 Select #81 Mark Grace  Kind of a weird look on his face in that action shot.

2000s: 2004 Playoff Honors Prime Signature #27 Billy Williams This is in the Billy player collection and it features an oft-used picture.   Sigh!

2010s: 2011 Topps #655 Starlin Castro Rookie Cup Gold  Remember when we held so much hope for Starlin Castro? 

Ginter!

My 2015 Ginter cards have arrived!  As usual, brentandbecca did a great job getting me everything quickly and at a fair price.

As usual, the Ginter set is 350 base cards, with the last 50 being short prints.  A big change for this year is that the set includes only active players.  No retired players means no Ernie Banks this year; no Billy or Ryno either.

The Cubs landed 13 players on the checklist.  350÷30=11.67, so the Cubs were a little above average.

 

 

  Four of the eleven have designated rookie cards.  Thankfully for my wallet, the Bryant cards was not a short print.  Topps had time to add Bryant to the checklist.  I wonder why they left Baez in the set?

Or why they didn't drop Olt when Bryant was added.  Neither of them are necessary.

 

 

 

 

The only glaring omission would be Miguel Montero.  Every other position except catcher was covered.  We've got the starting eight, the top three starters, and the closer...just no catcher.  

I bet they'll have Schwarber in next year's set.