Topps Now has had some
success this season, considering that most teams have played 30-32 games Topps
just topped 60 cards on the checklist with cards #59, 60 and 61 are currently available.
Most cards have a run of just a couple of hundred with Melvin Upton Jr’s #24 (Walk
off HR)having the lowest run of only 226 cards printed and Jake Arrieta’s #30
(No hitter) having the highest print run of 1,808 cards printed.
That was until yesterday’s release of card #57 memorializing Bartolo Colon’s first homerun at the age of 42 years old. The print run on this card is 8,826 proving that this old dog still brings in the love.
You would think that the
card that will depict A-Rod’s 700th Homerun or Ichiro’s 3,000 Hit
would garner that type of attention but Colon’s first Homerun? I will admit
there is something very unique about his accomplishment. He isn’t the oldest to
hit a homerun, that record belongs to Julio Franco who I believe was somewhere around
83 years old when he hit it, but he has to be the oldest to hit his first
homerun.
He is the oldest to hit his first homerun. Good call.
ReplyDeleteI thought the huge print run was a Bartolo thing, but then I remembered him having an earlier Topps Now card (#46) and it didn't even crack 300 copies. Crazy that this one would garner over 8,800.
I was tempted to buy one, but held off. Maybe if in a few weeks they're on the secondary market for cheap. Pretty funny it had such a huge print run!
ReplyDeleteThat's quite the explosion! I guess it was the perfect storm of it being the weekend, a pseudo folk-hero in Colon and such an unexpected occurrence. I'll be interested to see if Ichiro can even come close to those production numbers when he hits 3,000.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think a "real" event card (as opposed to "so-and-so hits two HRs, drives in 5" kinda thing, which is most of them) is always going to get the high print run. A no-hitter is historic. Ichiro's 3000th would be, too. A-Rod could go either way, being a bit tarnished. But, if I were a bettin' man, I'd bet that nobody tops Big Sexy's first HR at age 42. Not this year. Not even if Bart hits another.
ReplyDeleteBart's well down the list of oldest ever to homer. Franco holds 20 of the top 25 spots on that list. He was nearly 49 when he hit his last. The oldest player to homer OTHER THAN Julio Franco was Jack Quinn of the 1930 Philadelphia Athletics who hit his final bomb at age 46 and 357 days.