2012 Panini Playoff Prime Cuts

Got this card for a great price considering it is a triple relic and short printed to 25. Like I have said previously, the gold or yellow colored relics seem to be much more rare and I really think they are great. On top of that, all of the relics on this card are different. On top of that some more, the gold relic has some awesome stitching which is even more rare. The image and design is pretty blah, so it does make the relics stand out more.

Group relics with Clemente

The following are relic cards I haven't shown previously.

2005 Fleer Classic Clippings / Cut of History #CH- HA/RC/TW 

An awesome card with three solid hall of famers. The blue uniform of Hank Aaron goes well with the design of the card. 

2007 Spotkings Quad Memorabilia (SK Vault) #QM07 6 of 6

Great card with icons of four different sports. I really like the yellow relic for Clemente. It is also really thick and causing the card to bulge in that area of the card. 

2007 Sportkings Cityscapes (SK Vault) #CS07 4 of 6

Two icons from Pittsburgh. Nuff said.

2005 Fleer Classic Clippings  / Bat Rack #BR-RC/BM/BM/WS

Three hall of famers that played in the same lineup and Bill Madlock who was a great hitter in his own right. I think I would have rather seen Al Oliver instead of Madlock though. Great card and unique design.

2008 Sportkings Triple Memorabilia (SK Vault) #TM-03 5 of 6

Who can't like Ernie Banks? Solid player. Pete Rose will make the hall of fame soon. Three of the hardest playing ballplayers to ever put on a uniform. Let's play two and Charlie Hustle and even Arriba. Happy to have this card.

2015 Panini Immaculate Collection #1 44 of 49

One of my more recent acquisitions. It is a unique combination and I can't complain.

2015 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CCR-CM 40 of 66

I think McCutchen has a good shot of making the hall of fame. He has one MVP under his belt, plays with a contender the last couple of years, potential 3000 hit club. Let's hope he stays with the Pirates for several more years. Tough to do in this day and age.

2007 Sportkings Triple Memorabilia (SK Vault) #TM-11 5 of 5

Another great assemblage of hall of famers and the second relic of Williams and Rose. 

50 more relics

I have this display case where I tried to put as many of my Clemente relics as possible. I could probably use a couple more of these. I don't really have that much available wall space. At least not wall space I would like to use of that I would be allowed to use.

I took a couple photos at different angles. There really isn't any logic to which cards are placed in this case, except that they fit and I can maximize how many get in here. I guess I like the rookie card reprint relic and the group card shared with Kiner and Mazeroski the most. What's your favorite?

Ripped Card

2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Rip-78

So, believe it or not, Beckett actually has some of these cards in their price guide, and they aren't overly cheap, even ripped. I don't think they have many cards priced under quantities of 25 usually, but I got a great deal on this one. I couldn't justify paying too much for a ripped card. It's only a quantity of 5 and seems to be fairly cleanly ripped, if that is even really possible. I'm not sure if PSA could even grade these higher than a 2. The front is great though. I don't blame the original owner of ripping it though. I don't think I could have resisted the temptation either. I couldn't ever see myself keeping unopened packs or cellos either. 

Panini Precious Stones

A new fad seems to be embedding precious stones into a baseball card. I'm not really a fan of this practice, but I guess it could help the cards maintain a certain value. I think the prices are a little inflated at this point, but I am always a sucker for a unique card of Clemente with a low print run.

2014 Panini Cooperstown #49 Emerald

2014 Panini Cooperstown #74 Sapphire

I believe there are at least three different card numbers in this set with Clemente alone. Each features a unique photo. I also believe there are at least three different precious stones available for each number, sapphire (numbered to 15), emerald (numbered to 10) and diamond (5?), and also possibly a ruby. They are apparently guaranteed. I don't think small stones will sell for much anyway. I think it would have been nicer to have the stones visible from both front and back, which would show the color much better. 

2015 Panini Etched in Cooperstown #15 Sapphire

2015 Panini Etched in Cooperstown #59 (no stone)

Panini continued the idea into 2015. It is very similar to 2014 except they went with an "etched" design which is interesting but makes the images difficult to see. I'm hoping to eventually get a stone card for Roberto's solo card, but it's never a bad thing to share a card with the Flying Dutchman. Even the base cards of this issue are priced high right now. I'm hoping it goes down after a while.

2014 Classics - Classic Combos #24 - Clemente and Mazeroski Relics

I have well over 100 different and unique relic cards of Clemente, and several have more than one player on the card. Before this card, I had never even been lucky enough to get a two-color relic. This is a real treasure though in that it is a three-color relic with a decent amount of texture and stitching to it. I didn't have this card yet either, and it is a good combo with Mazeroski, a hall of fame teammate. I have another card from this same set with three players (Clemente, Stargell, and Mazeroski), all bat relics, which is another great card. This brand didn't have MLB licensing, so the logos were all air-brushed off the images, but otherwise they are good photos and I am very pleased with getting this card.

3000 Hit Club - Bat Relic Cards

So I recently decided to start an offshoot collection of the 3000 hit club.  I have been collecting Clemente for a while, and have increased interest in Paul Waner and Honus Wagner, and even Cal Ripken, and knowing some of the members received the Clemente award (Mays, Brock, Rose, Carew, Ripken, Winfield, Gwynn, Biggio, Kaline, Jeter and even potential future member Pujols), it seems natural to move towards a 3000 hit club collection. I started with trying to get all of the autographs of the members. I have most of them and will post those in a follow up blog. I also have tried to get at least one vintage card of each of the members. I have most of those as well and will post those later. Recently, I decided I should try to get a bat relic card of all the members. It is somewhat easier to do than either the autographs or the vintage cards. The toughest for any of these collections to get are, of course, Cobb, Wagner, Speaker, Lajoie, and Collins. Waner and Clemente are somewhat difficult. Clemente is very tough for the autograph and I haven't splurged on one of those as of yet. Rose is very easy for the autograph, but not as easy for the relic. The fact that he is banned from baseball and the same for cards with licensing, means you have to find a card from a company such as Panini, which puts out cards without the licensing.

Some things to note about my bat relic collection:
- I didn't always get the cheapest card as you will see below on the guidelines I used to get the cards for my collection.
- I wanted a good image. Preferably one with the player in a batting stance and with as much of the full body image as possible. If that wasn't possible due to rarity, then a nice portrait would be okay. In-action images would be better than a posed batting stance. I also wanted color and design to be a factor, as I hope to frame this collection along with the autographs and vintage cards in the future.
- I didn't want any of the cards to be from the same issue. If I have one 2001 UD Hall of Famers card, then I wouldn't get another player from that same issue. It made collecting them a little more challenging.
- I also tried to get images from the team I most identify with the player. That would be up for debate in many cases, but it's my collection so I made the decisions. I am not a fan of the Yankees, so I snubbed them of Winfield, Rodriguez, and even Henderson. Jeter only played for them so I had no choice in that case. I have Molitor on the Twins, where I would rather have him on the Brewers, but that's the way it worked out. I also have Rose on the Phillies. In both those cases, I do have the autographs and vintage cards on the correct team, so I do have some diversity.
- I am not including Cap Anson in any of the collections because he played prior to the 20th century and he is also very difficult if not impossible to get any vintage cards, relic cards or autographs for.

Pete Rose - 4,256 hits

Ty Cobb - 4,191 hits

Hank Aaron - 3,771 hits

Stan Musial - 3,630 hits

Tris Speaker - 3,514 hits

Derek Jeter - 3,465 hits

Honus Wagner - 3,430 hits

Carl Yastrzemski - 3,419 hits

Paul Molitor - 3,319 hits

Eddie Collins - 3,314 hits

Willie Mays - 3,283 hits

Eddie Murray - 3,255 hits

Nap Lajoie - 3,252 hits

Cal Ripken, Jr. - 3,184 hits

George Brett - 3,154 hits

Paul Waner - 3,152 hits

Robin Yount - 3,142 hits

Tony Gwynn - 3,141 hits

Dave Winfield - 3,110 hits

Alex Rodriguez - 3,070 hits (still active)

Craig Biggio - 3,060 hits

Rickey Henderson - 3,055 hits

Rod Carew - 3,053 hits

Lou Brock - 3,023 hits

Rafael Palmeiro - 3,020 hits

Wade Boggs - 3,010 hits

Al Kaline - 3,007 hits

Roberto Clemente - 3,000 hits

I also am figuring that Ichiro and Pujols will make the club shortly. Ichiro should make it in a year, and Pujols in three years at most. After those two get in, it doesn't look like anyone else will get in for a decade at the earliest. It is too hard to foretell which players will beat the odds of not having injuries, and having a long, prosperous career. Harper? Trout? McCutchen? We shall see.