2007 Cubs Program Cards - Definitely a Set

  

This card of Carlos Zambrano came from volume 2 of the Cubs 2007 program.  It's numbered 2 of 2.  My question is where is 1 of 2.  Today I've got the answer.

Here's the first edition from 2007 and the card on the inside, Upper Deck Alfonso Soriano.  His card is the only one I've seen mentioned on any listings of this version of the program.

The card's back gives us the news, that we have a special set.  Soriano is in all of the first edition books and he has card number one while Zambrano is in the second edition with card two.  We definitely have a special set just for the Cubs program.

2006 Cubs Program Cards??

The 2006 Cubs program arrived.  This was the first of four consecutive years that the program advertised "Collectors' Card Inside."

I knew for the eBay listing that the book has a Derrek Lee Upper Deck card inside.

 

Here it is, attached to the front of the scorecard in the middle of the program.  

The card is the base 2006 Upper Deck card.  The big unanswered question is whether the back is the base Upper Deck or a special Cubs-only card.

And the answer is...

.... base Upper Deck, just regular card #90.  Nothing special to see here.  The card will go back into the program since I already have the card in the UD binder.

My First 2021 Card

 I have my first 2021 card in hand and its my first from 1951 as well.

This is from the on-line only 1951 Topps set by artist Blake Jameson.  Topps used the template from their first set, 1951, and Jameson provided the player's image.  There were 13 cards issued each of the four weeks in January.  You'd get the 13 cards for $19.99.  They were available for just the one week and then cut off, like the Living Set.

Cubs were included in three of the four weeks, which is a really good turnout. The Baez card comes from week #1.  That week's set had a print run of 7,679.

I expect to be getting the other two Cubs cards in the next week or two.  One came from the second week and the other was from week 3.  I'll get them posted as they arrive.

1993 Showcase Gallery Cubs

 Today I'm featuring the second of three price guides that were new to me as of a month ago.

This one is called "Showcase Gallery" and like the 1991 Showcase Baseball, it is numbered to 10,000.  I'm pretty sure that two different companies put out two guides with Showcase in their name.  I find it interesting that the two Showcases were both numbered to 10,000.

The numbering bit didn't work for Showcase Baseball which died after two editions.  Showcase Gallery was even less successful, as this is their one and only issue.

The magazine included a sheet with nine cards including every price guide's favorite Cub,

Ryne Sandberg!  The photograph of the whole sheets gives a better look at the gold foil compared to the scan of the card.  I still haven't found a good way to scan foil and keep if from looking so dark.

2020 Bowman's Best Cubs

 It's very weird that I am showing some 2020 cards in the middle of the second month of 2021.  I've never been this far behind.  It's covid's fault!  The 2020 edition of Bowman's Best was released on December 23.  That makes it pretty tough to show in 2020!

The set has 70 players and 30 Top Prospects.

 

 

Four Cubs were among the 70 players.  I'm shocked that there were that many and even more shocked that Topps didn't include Robel Garcia!!

Ed Howard is the Cubs representative in the Top Prospect subset.  He was their #1 draft pick last June.  The picture has to be a total Photoshop job.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 19,019 Cubs cards from 282 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

Check out the total number of Cubs cards --- I passed the 19,000 mark!

1900s - 1970s: 1960 Topps #349 Moe Drabowsky  I'm about 99% sure that Moe had his picture taken at Seals Stadium in San Francisco.  Why didn't they change the name of the ballpark when the Seals moved out and the Giants moved in?

1980s: 1983 Team Issued Steve Trout This card would be the first of any that shows Trout with the Cubs.  It came out months ahead of the Topps Traded set.

1990s: 1995 Flair #332 Mark Grace  Grace sure has a serious look on his face.

2000s: 2005 Fleer #180 Carlos Zambrano Big Z looks fairly friendly here. This was a few years before he went all psycho.

2010s: 2010 Bowman #82 Aramis Ramirez Ramirez saw his batting average plummet 76 points from this 2009 average, down to .241.  It was by far his lowest as a Cub.

2007 Cubs Program Cards??

The 2007 Cubs game day program arrived and I can see if the cards are regular cards (like in the 2008 program) or if it comes from a special set.

But first, I have a slight diversion.

The seller included the ticket from the game, and if you look, there is a Hall of Fame medallion pictured.  Look again to see who is pictured.

Billy Williams, my all-time favorite Cub!  That was a happy little coincidence.  

Now back to the program and the baseball cards included.

This is what was inside, an Upper Deck card of Carlos Zambrano.

The front is identical to the base Upper Deck Zambrano card.  Now the big question -- is the back different or is this just a base card?

It's different!  Look in the upper left hand corner and you'll see that the card is numbered 2 of 2.  Now the trick is to figure out who has card #1.  I looked at the listings of the other 2007 programs, but none mentioned or showed the card on the inside. 

The book I have is the second edition.  I messaged two sellers who have the first edition listed and asked if their books had the card inside.  Both responded that they have a card of Alfonso Soriano.  The only way to see the back of the card is to remove it from the book and I didn't feel I could ask the sellers to do that.  Instead I bought the cheaper of the two listings.

Once I get the book I'll be able to see if Soriano is card #1.  The other scenario is that there were two cards with each edition.  I'll have to keep an eye on future listings to see if any player besides Soriano or Zambrano show up.