For those who don't know the Spring Training sets were a huge foul up by Topps. The buying period ended before many of the checklists were officially complete. This in turn lead to poor sales. The Pirates checklist was only missing a few cards so I went ahead and put my order in for the auto version of the set as the checklist featured Marte, Taillon and Glasnow as signers.
When my set arrived I got the Marte auto so I figured I could hit eBay for the Taillon and Glasnow. As of now I don't think the Glasnow was ever produced as I haven't seen one hit eBay. So in my mind all I needed to do was try and secure a Taillon. This proved to be easier said then done.
Since so few sets were produced. the autos that did make it on eBay had very high BIN prices. I put what I thought were competitive offers on a few of them, but had each denied. Finally after months of no action a Taillon finally hit normal auction.
Jameson Taillon Road to Opening Day Topps NOW auto /25
The final price for this card was right around $60 which is the most I've spent on a card in quite sometime. The good side is that my original offers were all more so I did save some money. I now have all the Pirate released NOW cards in my possession.
Here was the Marte I originally showed off a few months back.
Thanks for reading!
Nice Christmas card. I see you finally got your Taillon (tie on) for a Marte Partay.
ReplyDeleteI'm bummed that the program didn't start earlier when the Pirates were having great seasons. It would have been awesome to see a card for Aramis and Burnett with the paintings they were given in their final home games. Or to have gotten a Garrett Jones splashdown Allegheny card.
Yeah the NOW program was a couple years too late for us. Oh well, it saved me a lot of money. Are you even chasing these now since you are Cutch centric now?
DeleteI pick up a few here and there. I got all the Josh Bell and Josh Harrison cards, the Serpico Walkoff from this year (missed the one from last year), John Jaso cycle, Cole Train HR shutout, Adam Frazier, Gift debut, and Jamo debut from last year
DeleteVery nice Christmas card indeed!
ReplyDeleteOkay, just went to Topps Now website and saw there were 53 Road to Opening Day autographed edition sets produced.
Taillon's and Marte's print runs were both 25. So, what did they do for the other three cards? Did Glasnow sign three cards?
I was confused by this as well. Marte and Taillon both have cards /25 and I've seen a Marte /10 too. I'm guessing they must have evened it out, but who knows.
DeleteAhhh... a /10... now's there seven extras! You never know with Topps though.
DeleteCouldn't afford the ST set...it's very hard for me to get Topps NOW, being on a limited income...I hope to get some through eBay.
ReplyDeleteThose Pirates cards are beautiful!
Thanks John! You can get just about every new releases in the $5 to $6 range. Sometimes the cards are put on auction so you can find some even better deals if you are patient.
DeleteNice additions!
ReplyDeleteI picked up every Cubs card last year but stuck to the base versions this year, no relics or autos. I somehow missed the Players Weekend set though. I might try to pick one up in the offseason when prices tend to dip a bit.
I think the player weekend sets only had a 5 day window or so. There is no way I could collect everything if I was a Yankee, Dodger, Red Sox or Cubs fan. Pirates tend to be middle of the road in terms of cards produced so it is manageable.
DeleteGreat autos! I let the last two Judge now cards go by. There were just too many in too short a time and I couldn't justify it.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing your set! You should email Topps and ask them if they ever produced and shipped a signed Glasnow version. Who knows... maybe they'll send one to you for being such a loyal Pirates fan.
ReplyDeleteActually... that's an idea. They should do something special for team collectors who collect every Topps Now card produced during the season. Maybe a special signed card exclusive for those fans.