One of the challenges of modern collecting is that there are too many cards. By this I don't mean there's a lot of cool options out there, I mean there are maybe three dozen unique cards released per year and they each merely come in a billion different colors.
Anybody who still reads my blog knows this so I know I'm not exactly breaking news.
But that still begs the question, what do you do if your favorite player has so many cards that you can't possibly have a collection where you collect every card of theirs. It'd take way too much money, space and time.
You could go the route I did and find niche players who aren't top rated prospects or superstars but still get cards here and there, but normal people want stars. Superstars.
Which is why I decided to try something.
According to Beckett and Trading Card DataBase, MLB superstar Nolan Arenado has roughly 8,670-something different cards and counting (if you consider each parallel a different card). That is absolutely insane and nobody could possibly come close to having even half of those. If you go to Check Out My Cards the number of Arenado cards they have available is roughly 2,680-something different cards available, which is still insane. COMC's not a perfect site but the way their layout works is good enough for my purposes.
The idea is basically to just try window shopping and see what I find.
Not to go all Dime Box Nick on you all but my definition of "quality" is primarily going to be "what does this card show or say about this player and why I think they're worth collecting". It's going to focus heavily on the photographs used (a picture tells a thousand words as they say) because for a lot of these cards they're not even trying with the backs. But I will note when something is worthwhile on the back.
Please note that this is NOT an invitation for people to send me Arenado cards. I don't want them, I already got all of the ones I would want as you'll see below.
One would think getting those rookie cards or Bowman Chrome prospect cards would be at the top of the list but honestly I'd stay away from both, if for no other reason than because they're overpriced. They're the cards people invest in for a reason folks. Sucks to have to pass on a collecting staple like the vaunted rookie card but honestly the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Ah here we go, the oldest we're going to go today is with 2015 Topps Stadium Club. Keeping in line with the core theme I've selected, this one card says a lot. He's passionate, he looks like he's yelling "lets fucking go!" at the top of his lungs right as he crossed home plate at Coor's Field. You can tell he's the type of player who ran with enough hustle that he left his helmet far behind and doesn't care how dirty his jersey gets.
There are more than a handful of cards that feature Arenado yelling but I think two is about enough to get the idea across, this roll call insert from 2020 Topps Big League also had a better write-up on the back stating Arenado's bat is elite and his fielding is also elite.
Now the last card mentioned Arenado's defense, which brings me to the third card, a Topps Now card from 2017, specifically the All Star Game. In the shot you can clearly see Arenado making a leaping throw from the hot corner. When you think of Arenado you think of his offensive output obviously but you also think of his slick defense at third, we've all probably seen at least one highlight of him making a tough grab in foul territory and just gunning down some runner at first.
A fair number of Arenado cards that picture him fielding appear to be while he's throwing and are kinda meh because of the cropping. The key feature of his glovework is that he can do things like leaping throws or throwing from his knees or throwing off-balance on one foot. Making the focus just his upper body and face as a lot of cards tend to do robs the card of being able to communicate that. This Defensive Wizard insert from 2020 Topps Big League is a good example of showing he's going for a tough grab and probably about to make a difficult play look easy. No part of his body is cropped out, this card adds to telling the story of Arenado's glove. The back also has some great things to say too.
Now back to Arenado hitting, obviously you can imagine that there are hundreds of very boring Arenado cards featuring him in a standard hitting pose. So instead I opted for the slightly less generic shots above courtesy of the 2019 Prizm Star Gazing insert and a photo variation from 2020 Topps flagship. They picture just the right moment when Arenado is getting locked in and all his focus completely shifts to hitting the ball as far as he can possibly hit it. Like up at the stars.
Blast off.
These are just really good shots of contact being made and the subsequent "holy fuck, where is that thing gonna land?" Stadium Club really is the best at this kinda stuff. Although Stadium Club chrome scans and looks like shit. A shot like the one they used for that one deserves a regular paper stock release.
Consider these a stream-lined version of the events above. He gets his equipment from the rack, he gets in the zone, then into that MLB logo stance, he launches a ball into orbit, he runs the bases (extra points for the face he's making in the little window), then he can enjoy things like tipping his hat at fans who appreciate how good he is at hitting the ball. A simple story told through just six cards.
Also note that the Home Run Challenge card is the only generic batting pose card I picked up because the card being a niche contest giveaway outweighs its flaws. Although it deserves a little credit for having Arenado's full body in the frame and not being cropped above his torso.
Thus far this collection has been void of those cards that come with giant price tags. The patch autographs limited to 10 copies and that kind stuff. They'll continue to be omitted because I can't afford them, also there's not much to say about most of them since the cards are made with the understanding that the only thing that matters is that they're signed. But it doesn't hurt to add one autograph to a collection to give it a little nudge. The cheapest I could find on COMC (and on eBay by extension) was the Prizm Spectra above. It's not going to command triple or quadruple digits thanks to that very visible logo-less hat. But I picked it up because it's the cheapest Nolan auto on the market and because the signature is on-card. Although when I got this in-hand I was shocked at how thick this card is. It's impossible to store in a regular binder page so I may have consider selling this in the future to get a much more reasonably thin one.
All in all I picked up 16 Nolan Arenado cards. If you exclude the autograph the remaining 15 cards added up to around $15. If I weren't a niche/Luis Torrens super-collector I'd assume this would be how I personally would go about collecting my favorite stars. Building rainbows and whatnot are fun but at this level of card output it's impossible and would make it un-fun very quickly. But this is a low-stakes, very cheap method of hand picking the type of cards I can just store in a 9-pocket binder page, flip to said page and say, yep that's the player I collect all right, and keep it to cards that show exactly why. It's just right. And for the curious don't worry, I already have other Arenado cards to fill up the 18 pockets in the binder page that I'd already pulled before.
And these aren't too bad either honestly considering they're Utz, a photo variation and MiLB Heritage cards from my first days in the hobby. But they also unfortunately do a great job in highlighting just how boring and generic these cards can be.
Thus concludes my little experiment/excuse to splurge on Arenado cards I thought looked cool.
Again please note that this is NOT an invitation for people to send me Arenado cards. I already got all of the ones I would want.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care.
