One of the most annoying things about collecting, in my opinion, is dealing with the non-standard card sizes. I’ve expressed my displeasure of minis in the past, but rarely do I get to talk about the oversize stuff.
That’s because I haven’t been actively seeking the oversized cards for quite some time. When I went to my first National in 2015, I was really hoping to find some there, but I didn’t. Same for 2017. Perhaps those dealers have the same issues that I do: Storage and shipping. They would have had to package them up to get to the show floor, and don’t easily fit in most card protecting things.
As for me, I’m very hesitant to try buying them from ebay. They are already condition sensitive, since most are box toppers and are rattling around in the box before getting that thin pack opened. However, I’m more worried that the seller won’t protect them properly. We all know how bad people can be about cutting corners, so I assume the worst, like plain unpadded envelopes or not putting “do not bend” anywhere so it winds up folded, or they literally cut corners to get it to fit into whatever package is not meant for cards.
So, I’ve been slowly working on getting these, because it has to happen sometimes. Mostly I’ve been searching on COMC, because you can look at the scans, even though that’s not a perfect system and I’ve received ones that seemed okay but do look a little dinged in a corner or two. But if you have some of the boxtoppers, or other cards I need, please let me know. I have some that I’ll probably list for trade or sale at some point, but I’m afraid of messing up the shipping as well.
Finally, a Stadium Club card with a border
Perhaps the first box topper type cards are the Stadium Club master photos. These were really cool at the time, but the novelty has worn off for me. I got this from Andy during his huge Stadium Club phase.
Sorry Ellis, no room on the scanner for you
Technically this is a box backer. My parents found these cereal boxes at an antique mall and gave them to me for Christmas, not even knowing that I collect Tony Gwynn.
They use a different picture/color on the inset minis
All the rest of these are from COMC. To be honest, I have no idea why Ryan Dempster is on this Allen & Ginter box topper. I’m going to assume it’s because of a home run given up to Pujols. The back doesn’t explain what Decade of Dominance means, it’s just the checklist. When trying to research it, I think it’s because Pujols hit the most home runs off of Ryan (8), but it’s really not that evident.
Dempster has the same hair underneath that cap, Brian
Here’s maybe a happier Dempster boxtopper, even though he’s not smiling. Now I’m just down to needing the blue tint version, which has eluded me ever since this set was released (and is not very easy to tell apart from the normal card).
Fix your hair!
Here’s a happy fellow. Sticking with 2011 Heritage is Zobrist with no logos anywhere to be found. Billy makes up for it though.
No hair issues
Back to serious. Lester is another middle child in 2013.
Yeah! No Cardinals in sight!
Back to Dempster. This card may have spurred a spending spree, because it was surprisingly cheap at a time when Altuve was either winning MVP or the World Series (don’t remember which) and I wanted to beat them to the punch.
Belt’s nostrils bother me
The ultimate stare down between Belt and Montero. Who will blink first? Neither, because it’s a picture. Well played, gentlemen.
Look at that whipper snapper with the backwards cap
The last one is possibly the most unexpected. I wouldn’t have assumed David Ross would make the advertising panel cut (since he has less than 200 cards I need total in his career), but here we are.
I haven’t been able to fully checklist the advertising panels from Heritage, so some of them may be missing from my want lists, especially from this current year, but again, if you have any, I’m open to receiving them. I may not like them that much, but I’m still collecting them if I collect the player. For some reason.
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