2008 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Barrel Autographs Bat Barrel On-Card Auto #04/15

It is difficult to come up with appropriate words for how great this card is.  To say I am completely stoked to own it is an understatement. When it came up for auction, it was one of those cards that I had never seen an example of before - ever - and I've looked at several auction sites for Fisk cards every single day for fifteen years.  With only 15 ever made and no telling how many actually in circulation, for this to come up for sale is a very rare event.  Which is to say I thought I had absolutely no chance to own it.  I put in my max bid, sighed a longing, woeful sigh, and moved on with my life.  On the day the auction closed I was stunned that I had won it.

As I've said over and over (and many of you collectors agree with me), the Upper Deck designs around this period are unparalleled.   This card is no exception.  Graphically, all the elements just work.  The horizontal orientation of the card combined with the vertical graphics is the foundation of it.  Then throw in a few contrasting horizontal lines in a matching gold color.  All of that draws your eye to the centerpiece gigantic on-barrel autograph :)  And numbered to 15?  Any collector would just say "wow".

My only knock on this card would apply to many others - the photography.  All of the companies use and re-use the same couple dozen old photographs of Fisk over and over and over.  I realize there are not an unlimited number of quality Fisk images from the 1970's.  But it sure seems as if UD and Topps especially are not going out of their way to uncover or discover any more of them.  Seems like a cost saving move to me.  Especially on high-end cards, collectors expect better.  One suggestion would be to use action shots rather than posed photos.  There would be a great deal more of them and acquiring rights to a handful of old press photos can't be that cost prohibitive.

In the case of this 2008 card, I immediately noticed that the photo is the exact same shot, albeit cropped differently, that Upper Deck used just two years later on another high-end Fisk card in the Exquisite line.  Here's a side-by-side:

2010 UD Exquisite

2008 UD Ultimate

The Exquisite is from the waist-up and this Ultimate card is head-to-toe.  But still, guys, at least put six or seven years between using the same exact file photo on a high end card.  OK, gripe over.  I'm a happy owner of this card and will display it around the house for years with pride and happiness.

2015 Topps Tribute Tribute Autographs Gold Parallel On-Card Auto #17/75 - Recalled!

When I heard about the recall of 2015 Topps Tribute I just had to have one.  For one, just for the freak show factor of owning an item that was recalled.  Two, over time they might be considered rare. For example, it is quite possible that far fewer than 75 of this series of autographs was packed out and opened.  Some were never shipped from Topps, others were returned to Topps unopened and exchanged for other products.  No telling at this juncture how many of these exist.  I would think less than 20.

As you probably know, the issue was the coating on the cards.  Topps went for an ultra-glossy look on these cards, and they do look highly glossy and really great.  Issue is that the high gloss chemical did not react well with the Sharpie ink, which resulted in smearing and poor appearing autographs.  You can see how this example had smudges on it.  Will be interesting to see if it degrades over time, although I suspect that the initial smearing is all that will happen.

I saw this one up for sale at TNT Sportscards, one of the bigger sellers on eBay.  Given that it was smudged, it didn't bring a huge price and I was able to grab it for a reasonable amount - and below what a Fisk auto in the current year would normally bring.  Fun card to own, we'll see what happens!

2015 Topps Tier One Game Used Jersey Rainbow

I haven't been able to snag a 2015 Tier One autograph yet.  Patience is the key there.  However, I always try to grab the mem cards as they come out.  And for a couple years now, I've tried to get the single / double / triple mem patch rainbow.  The triple is always the tough get.  Grabbed that one on eBay and it showed up at the house a couple days ago.  Pretty sweet design this year.  The single is #58/199, the dual is #3/50 and the triple is #3/25.

2008 Topps Triple Threads Jersey-Bat-Jersey Triple Relic 2,226 Games #11/36

What to say about this little gem?  It doesn't jump up and say "wow" right away.  I think we've all gotten more than a little bored with memorabilia cards.  Eight years ago, however, I bet this card brought a lot more money than I just paid :)  I've always had a soft spot for Triple Threads and am glad to have one of the 2008's in my type collection for Fisk.

1996 Illinois State Lottery Ticket

At one point in the Fisk Obsession, I decided to be a completist.  I needed a collecting goal.  And for my sins, they gave me one.  That's many years ago when I discovered Bob Lemke's Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards and the Beckett Price Guide Checklists.  Both of those resources catalog, index and price all manner of non-card collectible items.  You guys know what I mean: 7-11 Slurpee cups, pinback badges, pennants, postcards, Matchbox cars, sew-on patches, coaster discs, dessert box bottoms, pencils, notepads, placemats, light switch covers, drinking glasses, shot glasses, etc, etc, ad infinitum.....

At one point, I actually had all of the Fisk stuff in the Standard Catalog and Beckett Guide.  All....of....it.  Not all the cards mind you, just this gigantic collection of chotchkies that had overrun my entire closet.  Except one item.  Sitting there on the "needs list" spreadsheet, mocking me for 15 years - the 1996 lottery ticket.

You see, there was *very* little Fisk material produced between his retirement from baseball in 1993 and his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.  While playing: lots of cards.  After induction: an avalanche of cards!  In between: bubkus.  Literally all 7 of those years are covered by about 10 items.  One of them, listed in the Becket Guide, was simply "1996 Illinois Lottery".  That's all I had to go on.  Nobody had ever heard of it, no photos, no eBay listing, nothing in the chat rooms.  It took me many years of pecking around to even figure out that it was an actual lottery play ticket with Fisk's image on it!  Great, I'm spending my free time searching for a ten-year-old used scratch-off.  Loser.  So after many years of looking and hoping, I setup a couple of eBay Followed Searches with things as broad as "Fisk (Illinois, Lottery)" and let it go at that.  Figured it was just one of those items I would never get.

Last week I crawled out of bed, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down with my iPhone to check messages as I do every day.  Buried in the spam was an eBay message with results from my Lottery search.  I thought, "yeah, this is probably a false positive" and clicked on it.  And there it was: a listing for a lot of 5 Illinois lottery cards, all well-known Chicago Hall of Famers.  I was stunned.  Something to the effect of "no effing way" escaped my lips as I grabbed my laptop to double check this.  Sure enough, it looked to be the genuine article.  The seller wanted $8.95 on a Buy It Now with Free Ship for all 5 tickets!!  I slammed down those keys so hard my wife asked me "what's the matter?".  "Nothin'", I said.  "Card stuff," as a I completed the PayPal transaction in record time.

It showed up a couple days ago.  It's definitely not going to compete for most beautiful item in the collection.  In the end, it's a $1 scratcher ticket that somebody threw in a drawer because it had a baseball guy on it.  It's nothing special.  But to us fellow collectors out there, that feeling of snagging the rare item you've been hunting for - and hoping for - for 15 years.  Well, I guess you have to be a collector to understand. You're all mine, 1996 Illinois Lottery.  All mine....

1984 Topps Glossy Send-Ins 4-Color Mask Film Negative w/ Topps Vault COA 1 of 1

Ya know kids, I loved cards in the 1970's and 1980's.  I spent countless hours sorting, stacking, counting, organizing, imagining and playing with my cards.  In 1984 Topps did a promo where you sent in some prize card I think and you got back in the mail a pack of glossy cards with no logo.  They were plain front cards, but the printing was so nice and that gloss!! Wow, they seemed really high end and special 30 years ago.  So having access to some 1 of 1 Topps production items that actually produced all of these cards is extraordinarily special.  This is my fourth Topps Vault Fisk item and while not the most attractive to look at or monetarily valuable, they are like holding a little piece of Topps history in your hand.  Very cool.

2015 Panini Diamond Kings Hall of Fame Heroes Bat Jersey Auto # /15

This is the second or third recent post on a Panini product where, once again, I'm going to say that I like this stuff.  To be fair, the only cards going on the Fisk Obsession blog are the sweet hits, the cards good enough to share.  I have plenty of Panini base cards, parallels and inserts that are total crap - box filler that makes Topps base look high end.  But the beautiful art work on this Hall of Fame Heroes card just takes the cake.  Simply stunning imagery.  Of course, it helps to have a bat relic, a 2-color jersey relic, a sticker auto, and a serial number to 15! :)  But I would be happy to own and display this as a base card just because of the art.

2010 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection #19/75

If I'm not mistaken, this is only the second one of these I've ever seen on eBay.  The first one I believe the guy was asking ~$200.  I was stunned when I first saw because, at first glance, it just appears like a fancy base card numbered to /75.  However, after a little looking around I found out that 2010 Upper Deck Exquisite was never actually a released set.  The base cards were seeded into packs of Upper Deck Series 1 as case hits.  This is where it gets interesting.  In March of 2010 as part of a settlement with MLB, Upper Deck agreed not to release any more baseball cards.  So the patch and auto versions of Exquisite were never released and the /75 base cards that would have been threaded into product all year until December, stopped its release before Opening Day in March.  So, no telling how many of these cards are out there in the market.  So when I saw this one on eBay, I made the owner a reasonable Best Offer and grabbed it.  It's a beautiful card in-hand, which is what Upper Deck was best at.  It's also the thickest base card I've ever held.  It took a 180-point top loader to hold it.  All in all, stoked to have this (rare?) card in my collection.  I can't say much for the art, though.  Fisk's face looks like an alien.  Interesting choice in art for such a high end product.

2004 Upper Deck SP Chirography - Hall of Famers - On Card Auto #08/25

I love when people put up nice autos with a $0.99 starting bid :)  I'm not saying they're getting ripped *at all* it's just that I get tired of seeing every nice auto go up with a 5 million dollar Buy It Now and not accepting best offers.  That stuff sits there and sits there, twarting the hopes of the owner who obviously is not real motivated to sell.  In this case, I was able to finally pick up this very nice 2004 SP Chirography auto for a reasonable price.  I do think I got a good deal because of the "HOF 2000" inscription which adds value.  Having Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and Yogi Berra on the card doesn't hurt either.  Having it be numbered to /25 isn't awful at that.  It's on-card and the blue sharpie looks really crisp against the white background.  All in all, a very sharp auto card in my opinion :)

2015 Topps Finest - Finest Greats On Card Auto

Finally a blog post about a current release!  Rarely can I afford to grab an on-card auto card during the initial release.  Prices for cards these days seem to just go up and up.  Lucky for a Fisk obsessive, the 2015 Topps Finest release is littered with un-numbered autos seemingly by the dozen.  A few weeks after release, could grab this one within my price range.  Of course, the numbered and parallels are way out in the stratosphere price-wise, but these base un-numbered jobs make it reasonable to own an auto of a current release.  This is something like auto number 54 in the Fisk collection.  And a pretty sweet looking design to boot.

2010 Topps Series 1 Peak Performance Game Used Bat Relic

As an officially obsessed Fisk player collector, I'm scanning and searching for new cards everyday....um OK, several times per day.  Somehow this one had gone right past me in 2010 and it has been *very* rarely been seen on eBay.  One came up about a month or so ago and sold for waaay more than I was winning to pay.  That, at least, confirmed its rarity to me as other collectors saw it as having value.  I was bummed to miss it; then, pleasantly, another one came up this month!  It's funny how that happens with rare cards, they come up in bunches.  So I ended up snagging this one for a much more reasonable price.  Happy collector :)

2014 Panini Classics Legendary Players Bat Auto #08/10

I am generally too lazy to use the scanner.  Like many of you, I'm too damn busy working and raising kids to take alot of time for cards.  Wish I had more time, but ya gotta have priorities.  But it's Father's Day and I'm feeling decadent, so here's a scanned card.  As I said in my previous post, Panini is pretty spotty and I thought the Classics release sucked.  Didn't even know this card was in the release until I saw it this year on eBay (in 2015, it's a 2014 card).  It's a sticker auto which drops it down in my view, but the overall design really works and looks sharp IMHO.  Being numbered to /10 really adds alot to it.  Paid alot for this card, but am very happy with it.  Happy Father's Day!!

2014 Panini National Treasures Silhouette Patch Auto #05/49

Panini is pretty hit-and-miss as far as I'm concerned. They either knock it out of the park or totally suck. NT is one of their better releases. I like the silhouette concept and its on-card.

2005 Leaf Certified Materials Fabric of the Game Dual Game-Used Jerseys w Johnny Bench

Cool card. 

2012 Leaf Legends of Sport Inscriptions On-Card Auto

Another creative idea from Brian Gray at Leaf. Loved this when it came out, and like a lot of releases you have to wait until they're no longer hot to get one at an affordable price. It's not the most amazing looking card. A lot of white space and Fisk left-justified the auto, but still love to see the big 11X All-Star. 

2011 Topps Triple Threads #TTFR-17 Double-Sided Game Bat - Sepia Parallel #05/27

Not a huge fan of Triple Threads but like this double sided jobbie as it is White Sox on front and Red Sox on back. Fisk is a rare Hall of Famer that is equally popular on two different teams, so pretty rare to see both on one card.

1997 Donruss Significant Signatures On-Card Auto # /2000

This is the granddaddy of them all as far as I know. For Fisk, pretty sure this is the first on-card auto ever issued. Sure, there's 2,000 of them out there so they're now worth $10-15 and probably dropping, but a great looking card even now.

2014 Panini National Treasures Flawless On-Card Diamond #19/20

Well I have to say this is a first for me. A real diamond inserted into a card. I waited and got this a lot cheaper than I originally would have expected....IF the diamonds are real :)

2014 Leaf 'Q' 2-Color Patch Auto

Leaf did well with the Q issue this year. Great practice-worn jersey patch and on-card auto for reasonable prices.

2014 Topps Supreme Simply Supreme Auto #13/15

This...is...sick

2014 Topps Five Star Dual Legends Relic #09/10

Amazing. I overpaid but I love this card. 

2009 Rawlings Official Major League Baseball (Selig) Single Signed on Sweet Spot w PSA/DNA COA

This is a pretty standard item in any player collection I would imagine.  You gotta have the ROMLB single signed with the PSA.  Shown here in the Ultra Pro UV protective case.  Very cool to hold in the hand. I won't put a lot of non-card stuff on TFO but this one was too sweet to pass up.

2014 Topps High Tek Fisk Rainbow

Lately I've been rambling on about how I love parallels.  Topps High Tek was the pinnacle of 2014 in this regard with 15 different parallels of each player available (by my count).  Added to that, they have a cool throwback feel to them being made from clear acetate.

Part of the fun was that it was confusing as hell to even figure out what cards where IN this release, much less how to get them.  Ryan Cracknell over at Cardboard Connection headed up an awesome and very helpful visual guide.  The initial information online was that EACH pattern was available in all the numbered parallels.  As Ryan's guide pointed out, the parallels are only available for the BASE pattern.  In the case of all American League players, that is the WAVE pattern.

As always, the collectors that contribute to Baseball Card Pedia created a great article on this set that helped immensely in solving the puzzle.

I am holding out a sliver of hope for getting the #/15 Black & White Diffractor and the #/5 Blue Dots Diffractor.  Have seen no copies of the B&W on eBay and only one Blue Dots which sold for crazy money.

So along the top row of this image you see the Wave pattern parallels.  The second row are the other five available patterns, from left to right is more rare to less rare.  Bottom row is, left to right, the base card, the National Sports Card Collector Convention dealer-only Promo card, and the on-card auto.

Top Row, left to right: Red Storm Diffractor #06/10, Clouds Diffractor #23/25, Disco Diffractor #42/50, Ice Diffractor #40/75, Gold Diffractor #83/99
Middle Row, left to right: Stripes pattern, Cracked Ice pattern, Circuit Board pattern, Laser Ice pattern, Spirals pattern
Bottom Row, left to right: Base card, 2014 National Show Exclusive Promo card, Wave pattern on-card autograph 

2012 Topps Tribute Fisk Rainbow

Call me crazy, but I thought 2012 Topps Tribute was a nice looking set of higher end cards.  As I've said numerous times, I really love the chase of getting lots of low numbered parallels, so this set is always perfect for me.  After spending an arm and a leg to get the /5 red, this rainbow is finally complete.  This one was fun and I don't care who you are - that's a pretty rainbow!

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Red Parallel #5/5, Gold Parallel #09/25, Orange Parallel #22/50, Green Parallel #54/75, Bronze Parallel #071/299, Blue Parallel #070/199, Black Parallel #08/60, and Base.

2012 Topps Triple Threads Fisk Rainbow

Not as sexy as the Tribute design and colors, the Triple Threads base cards are still an interesting chase. In addition to the always hot multiple swatch cards and autos, the Rainbow fanatic in me was juiced by the challenge of getting all seven Fisk cards. If you own the 1/1 Ruby, the contact button is on the bottom right :)

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Sapphire Parallel #21/25, Onyx Parallel #41/50, Gold Parallel #48/99, Amber Parallel # 066/125, Emerald Parallel #118/250, Sepia Parallel #028/625, and Base.

2014 Topps High Tek - Wave Pattern On Card Auto

The old 70's and 80's collector in me likes these cheesy see-through plastic jobbies Topps re-introduced this year.  Kind of reminds me of collecting Kellogg's 3-D from cereal boxes.  We know that they're schmaltzy but we like them anyway.  Also, I hear A LOT of guys online griping about the number of parallels being produced but here is one man's vote for MORE parallels!  As a player collector, the wide number of parallels is part of the chase.  Trying to get all the variations of a release is A LOT of fun for me every year.  In that spirit, my next few posts will be rainbows of my recent Fisk acquisitions.  Semper Parallelis!

2010 Topps Triple Threads - Triple Game Used Bat Relics #36/36 BGS 9.5

I won't rub it in by telling you how cheap I picked this up on The Bay.  I have to say from an investment point of view, the nice Triple Threads seems to hold it's value over time.  More so than almost any other relic card.  I didn't have any 2010 Triple Threads in the Fisk Collection so I grabbed this BGS-graded 9.5 when I had the chance.  Pretty sweet.

2011 Topps Tier One - Top Tier On Card Auto - Gold Parallel #06/10

Three years on, I still think this is a beautiful card - even for Topps.  I bought off eBay shortly after the release and sent to PSA myself.  A little bummed it came back only an 8 which is why the manufacturers should NOT be putting this level of card into packs raw - EVER.  But a beautiful on card signature in blue sharpie with a great looking gold card.  It stays in The Shrine so I can see it every day.  :)

2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Goudey On Card Auto

Crummy card, but hey an On Card auto for less than ten bucks? Every time...

1981 Chicago Tribune Original Wire Photo

Not a baseball card, but a sweet oddball item.  You can find these all over eBay and I have a few of them.  The downer is that, although it IS the original art that appeared in the newspaper, it does NOT come with the copyright to the image.  MMG Archive sends them out with a COA in a sturdy, good looking folder.  On the back are the little handmade marks that the file clerk used to file the image in the Tribune photo archive.  On the front are the handmade crop marks that the art department made for the pre-press folks.  Having said all that the reason I pulled the trigger on this one is it's one of the coolest Fisk images I've ever seen (and I've seen almost all of them!).  A truly great photograph. Photo by Ed Wagner, Jr and copyright held by The Tribune Company.

From the Chicago Tribune April 14, 1981

2008 Upper Deck Premier Trios #25/33

Pretty sweet low numbered mem card for $11 bucks with a Bench and Berra swatch. These days - unfortunately - I look at this card and seriously wonder if these patches are real. Still a cool card I could probably double my money on someday.

2009 Upper Deck Icons Immortal Lettermen "PUDGE" Series # /45

Well, it took me three years but I finally completed the # /45 "PUDGE" from 2009 UD Icons. When I finally saw the letters all together on the kitchen table, was quite satisfying. Being numbered to 45 I wonder how many guys have this one completed? What got me started was getting the letter "D" for $3.50 on eBay in December 2011. Couldn't pass up that smokin price. $50 and three years later I've got my first ever Fisk "name" series. Stoked!!