Golden

 

It's been a frustrating year for collecting the kind of cards I like collecting.

I've eased up on my vintage interests because there's no sense paying those prices. I'm hoping they'll settle back to normal in the coming months or maybe years (ack!), but for now those are not hard-charging needs.

The same with Kellogg's cards from the '70s, which practically break my heart. It wasn't even 3 or 4 years ago when dealers were close to begging me to take them at card shows and now try finding one of the stars from those sets uncracked for under 20 bucks.

 

I experienced first-hand this sticker shock after an accident in my card room a few weeks ago.

 

I store my completed Kellogg's sets in stacks of top-loaders atop a shelf, out of the sunlight. There's probably a better place for them but I like that I don't have to move them because moving leads to ruin when 3-D cards are involved. I probably should get them in one of those card storage boxes so I can flip through them all gentle-like.

Next to those stacks is one of my binder shelving units and closest to those Kellogg's cards is my very large, completed 1975 Topps binder. It's large enough to house the complete set, plus all of the buyback cards from the set I own, plus the one-off '75 themes and '75 customs.

Well, I wasn't paying attention one day as I hauled the '75 binder off its perch and it slipped out of my hands and -- bam! -- slammed onto the Kellogg's top loaders, scattering Kellogg's cards everywhere on the floor! OH NO! OH NO! ALERT! ALERT! DISASTER! DISASTER!

Panicked, because assuredly I had cracked a dozen of them with that swift move, I scrambled to resort them and checked every one for the inevitable signs.

By miracle, only one was damaged. But it was notable one.

Not even the top card in the '78 stack, six cards from the top in fact, the George Brett card sported a tell-tale crack. Good gosh, why do I collect these things?!

But, no matter, I expect that. Kellogg's cards sometimes crack if you look at them wrong. I'll just go online and order up another one. Might cost me 10 bucks because it's Brett. I can handle that.

*Urp*

So, this is how it's going to be.

And that's how it's been. I can nab a '70s Kellogg's card here and there but you best better believe it's probably not a star player.

This is really depressing. These are the cards that I love the most! And I have to sit tight, or change my standards, or look into kidney selling.

But I will not be denied.

This is where the vintage story ends and the modern story begins, but it's still about cards that have gone up in price and cards that I want.

I was discussing with Eric, aka "Those Back Pages," the former blogger and current YouTuber, the increase in prices over the last couple of years for the rather common gold parallels in Topps flagship products.

These cards weren't terribly difficult pulls, but ever since Topps increased production (but not production of the golds), they're less available and also have increased in price.

 

As you know, I like Clayton Kershaw cards.

I don't pay a lot of attention to gold parallels of particular players, but I'm interested in them for a player like Kershaw, who has been my favorite player almost his entire career.

All of the above gold Kershaws came to me relatively easy, either they were sent to me without much of a thought or I pulled them. I can see why things were different then. A scant number of people collected 10-to-15 years ago compared to now, and Kershaw wasn't a known quantity back then to those who weren't Dodgers fans. Thank goodness I knew something they didn't. For these are among the more coveted Kershaw golds now.

Those are from 2009-11 (top row), 2013 and 2016. I went on a bit of a parallel binge for Kershaw in 2013. And I probably landed the 2016 one because everything about that set, including the design for gold parallels, is a fright.

But that's where it stood all the way into 2022, six years after I landed my most recent Kershaw gold. Not a one since.

OK, I did get the 2020 Kershaw gold in a COMC order a few weeks back for a reasonable price. But that was it.

However, the Twitter convo with Those Back Pages fired me up. Sure, I'd pay to find the other Kershaw golds, but why should I be deprived of them just because more people figured out who Kershaw was over the last 10 years and more people figured out what collecting was again? I WAS HERE FIRST. I SHOULD HAVE THESE.

Yeah, I was angry enough to pay some outlandish prices.

The 2012 one arrived first in mid-June. Nine bucks. Yeah, I didn't even care. This card was issued just after his first Cy Young Award, which explains why I was never able to trade for it. But it was now mine.

 

The 2014 gold arrived a week later. Eight bucks. This card came out during the height of Kershaw's powers. He had just won his second Cy Young and was about to win his third (everyone hold on tight to your Kershaw golds!). He also pitched a no-hitter. Never saw this card in 2014. But it's here now.

2015 and 2021 Kershaw goldies showed up in late June. I'm mad about the 2015 one. It's clearly not as well-conditioned as the others, although at first glance it's fine. It also cost me more than any other Kershaw gold, over $12.50. Yeah, I overpaid, but going on missions will do that. Money? Who cares about stupid cash when THESE CARDS ARE NOT WITH THEIR PROPER OWNER.

The 2021 Kershaw was a perfectly reasonable $4. Heck, that's a pre-2017 price right there. I also like this card because the 2021's are a clear sign that Topps knows that departing from borders massively hurt the look of parallels and we're back to what makes them great.

 

2019 Kershaw gold knocked on my door at the tail end of June. Just $4.50 and I was making real progress.

The 2017 and 2018 Kershaw golds each arrived on July 1. Nine bucks for the 2017 (I should have saw the "Near Mint-Mint!!! come-on but I was still in a blinding rage). Six bucks for the 2018. The 2018 was swiped out of my cart at one point, but I recovered nicely.

So that was all of the flagship Kershaws, save for the 2022 version, which I had ignored during this mission. I think my brain thought it was still 2022 so there was time to pull this, like I'm actually going to the store and finding packs with gold parallels in them (Target is still a wasteland).

So I woke myself up and ordered the 2022 gold.

It arrived last week. Just $4.50. That's a nice seller.

And this is a nice display.

So, if you're keeping track of that -- and I know some of you are so you can say "that's too much money" (and have your comment receive the necessary bird flip aimed at my backlit screen) -- that was nearly 60 dollars. But it's still not as much as that one price for the '78 Kellogg's Brett card.

I haven't gone on a card purchase rage in a long time, that's just not me. But when all of the doors are shutting on you from every avenue, vintage, '70s oddballs -- when the cards that used to get me away from "those are some stupid prices" are now stupidly priced -- you sometimes have to prove a point:

Sometimes I really can't be stopped.

This means I'm required to finish out the Kershaw golds for the rest of his career, something I wasn't really focused on before.

I also have some Update Kershaw golds, although I don't have the big one, his 2008 Update, which somehow eluded me when people weren't paying attention to the guy. I can forget about getting that one and no righteous rage is going to help me.

I'll just sit tight for awhile now and see if the hobby will ever go back to normal again. Or I could just become one of those unfortunate people who are buying 1991 Donruss over and over again.