Must-have inserts and parallels 2000-2024

[jduds]

I’ve been consciously adding more non-rookies to my PC and I’ve got a pretty good want list for players from the 80s and 90s. I’ve been trying to figure out some Pujols and Ichiro cards from the aughts to chase, and am sure I’m missing some obvious choices, so figured I’d ask the brain trust that is Blowout what their favorite inserts/parallels or just must-have non-rookies are from the 2000s are. Really I’m after Pujols cards for the want list , but thought I’d leave it more of a broad question.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250427/8d5f6b39fe86c0541bcf0ab046dd1da0.jpg


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[mfw13]

Topps Heritage Black Refractors.....

[here2havefun]

First, go to www.icollectichiro.com , scroll through every year, make note of cards you like.

Specific sets/parallels I like:
Bowman Chrome Gold /50
Bowman Chrome Red /5
Topps Flagship Black
02-04 Topps Pristine Refractor and Gold Refractor
2002 Topps Chrome Black refractor /50
2003 Contemporary Gold
2003 Topps Chrome Xfractor blue /50 or /57
Leaf Limited Spotlight Gold /25
2004 Topps Chrome Xfractor red /61 or /63
2005 Finest Gold Xfractor /10
2005 Finest Black Xfractor /25

[Imnottheonly]

2000 Upper Deck SPX Radiance /100
2000 E-X Exceptional- blue /250
2000 Topps Finest Gold Refractor /100
2002 Topps Pristine Gold Refractor /70

[jduds]

First, go to www.icollectichiro.com , scroll through every year, make note of cards you like.

Specific sets/parallels I like:
Bowman Chrome Gold /50
Bowman Chrome Red /5
Topps Flagship Black
02-04 Topps Pristine Refractor and Gold Refractor
2002 Topps Chrome Black refractor /50
2003 Contemporary Gold
2003 Topps Chrome Xfractor blue /50 or /57
Leaf Limited Spotlight Gold /25
2004 Topps Chrome Xfractor red /61 or /63
2005 Finest Gold Xfractor /10
2005 Finest Black Xfractor /25

Thanks! That website is going to be very helpful. I love being able to just scroll through and compare designs. It should be very useful in compiling a similar, but much smaller, want list of Pujols cards.

[ThoseBackPages]

Topps Black

[ThoseBackPages]

Topps Heritage Black Refractors.....

as great as these are, Pujols' images are TERRIBLE

[corockies]

2002 Topps Chrome Black Refractors /50 - the set that started the black refractors. So many off centered copies. 2002 Chrome Updates were /100.

2002 & 2003 Upper Deck 40-Man Rainbows /40 - good luck finding your player(s).

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blues - again, good luck finding your player(s). The print run is all over the place on these.

2001 - 2005 / 2014 - 2023 Donruss Career and Season Stat Lines - so many low serial # copies of these over the years. Any player run should be a big challenge.

2014 - 2024 Stadium Club Foilboards /25 - super awesome under-rated parallel with a healthy legacy run.

[base set]

Ichiro has some particularly nice Photo Variation cards, some SP, some SSP, in the 10s, whereas the Topps Eye grew less interested in Pujols in California, seemed to me.

[ThoseBackPages]

Ichiro has some particularly nice Photo Variation cards, some SP, some SSP, in the 10s

HELL YEA!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54029338715_e439a7efa2_b.jpg

[jduds]

Ichiro has some particularly nice Photo Variation cards, some SP, some SSP, in the 10s, whereas the Topps Eye grew less interested in Pujols in California, seemed to me.

Ichiro does have some great ones. I think you are right about Topps getting less interested in Pujols. They definitely seem to have their favorites. Maybe some folks are more photogenic, but some players get more consideration when choosing photos. As a Braves fan, I'm a bit chagrined that I've got a small collection of Alonso SP variations, but they tend to make great ones for him.

[JimEd14]

First, go to www.icollectichiro.com , scroll through every year, make note of cards you like.

Specific sets/parallels I like:
Bowman Chrome Gold /50
Bowman Chrome Red /5
Topps Flagship Black
02-04 Topps Pristine Refractor and Gold Refractor
2002 Topps Chrome Black refractor /50
2003 Contemporary Gold
2003 Topps Chrome Xfractor blue /50 or /57
Leaf Limited Spotlight Gold /25
2004 Topps Chrome Xfractor red /61 or /63
2005 Finest Gold Xfractor /10
2005 Finest Black Xfractor /25

Great list. I'm a huge fan of 2002 Pristine and have been scooping up a bunch of the refractors and golds.

I'll add another from one of my favorite sets, the 2003 Topps Chrome Silver refractor.

They were redemptions (and not numbered), and not all were redeemed so, there are so few of them out there. I'm still on the hunt for Pedro.

[YouTheManNick]

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blues - again, good luck finding your player(s). The print run is all over the place on these.

.

What is the deal with these? There's purple /150, green /99, red /50 and then the blues aren't numbered but seem very rare.

[corockies]

What is the deal with these? There's purple /150, green /99, red /50 and then the blues aren't numbered but seem very rare.

Blues were listed with a 1 in 4 pack insertion rate, but ended up being 1 per box. Rumor has it there's a print run of /25, but they aren't serial #ed. 1007 card set makes finding any individual player card super tough.

Some weird things have happened through the years where a large lot of certain players were found randomly (226 Scott Kazmir, 83 Nelson Cruz, and 226 Chris Young) so it seems like certain players have a much higher print run than others. Leads one to believe that maybe some players never had any printed at all.

There's an old thread about them over on Freedom Cardboard - I'm not sure how kosher it is to link another board so I'll take it down if it's illegal:

https://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/threads/2006-upper-deck-special-fx-blue.40183/

[YouTheManNick]

Blues were listed with a 1 in 4 pack insertion rate,



Yeah. After leaving my previous comment I did some research and on baseballcardpedia it said 1:4. So, weird.

I love stuff like this, though. Definitely makes me want to chase some. A have a few reds and greens and they're nice looking cards.

[bear0555]

It's all about getting unique cards that may only be made a few times. Here's a game used bat barrel I tried to buy at a show a year ago. The dealer didn't accept my offer and appears to have sold it for a similar price on ebay.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/fFQAAOSwAJVl7oBB/s-l1200.jpg

Attached is another barrel auto. Much more available in supply yet still near impossible to find

[corockies]

Yeah. After leaving my previous comment I did some research and on baseballcardpedia it said 1:4. So, weird.

I love stuff like this, though. Definitely makes me want to chase some. A have a few reds and greens and they're nice looking cards.

If I remember correctly, they may have been even rarer than 1 per box. I believe they may have been 1 every 2 boxes. Anyway - very rare and if you find one of your player (or any worthwhile player) I highly recommend purchasing it.

[LWMM]

Special F/X is a funny set. As I recall, it was passed over and somewhat derided when it came out—yet another release with unclear purpose, and massive checklist. Over time, however, its lore has grown, particularly amongst player collectors who are searching for the blues. It's a bit of a paradox; precisely because those cards were once overlooked, they're now one of the iconic parallels of the 2000s.

The blues in particular check off a lot of the characteristics that make parallels tough to find (see discussion here (https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?p=19757512#post19757512)). They're inconspicuous and easy to overlook, the set doesn't appear to have been widely broken, and (other than to a few player collectors) they're not that valuable, meaning there's only a marginal incentive for people to seek them out and list them. My understanding from the time is that blues were one per box. I led a three-box break on FCB back in 2013 (thread here (https://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/threads/2006-upper-deck-special-f-x-three-hobby-box-group-break-scans-posted.131341/)); each box ended up having eight purples /150, four greens /99, and two reds /50. Meanwhile, only two of the boxes had a blue (the other box had four autos instead of three). There's another box break posted here (https://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/threads/whos-up-for-a-live-2006-upper-deck-special-f-x-box-break.101986/#post-1629478), which resulted in seven purples, five greens, two reds, and one blue.

I didn't find the Gomes until 2022, 16 years after release. There's a thread here (https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1540919) about finding it, which shows the photo from the lot. It truly was the proverbial rare card lost in a commons box—it was listed in a lot of 22 Gomes cards, all others of which were commons, and I had to squint to see that it might be the blue.

https://www.thepclist.com//images/players/149/f-6964.jpg

[corockies]

Special F/X is a funny set. As I recall, it was passed over and somewhat derided when it came out—yet another release with unclear purpose, and massive checklist. Over time, however, its lore has grown, particularly amongst player collectors who are searching for the blues. It's a bit of a paradox; precisely because those cards were once overlooked, they're now one of the iconic parallels of the 2000s.

The blues in particular check off a lot of the characteristics that make parallels tough to find (see discussion here (https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?p=19757512#post19757512)). They're inconspicuous and easy to overlook, the set doesn't appear to have been widely broken, and (other than to a few player collectors) they're not that valuable, meaning there's only a marginal incentive for people to seek them out and list them. My understanding from the time is that blues were one per box. I led a three-box break on FCB back in 2013 (thread here (https://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/threads/2006-upper-deck-special-f-x-three-hobby-box-group-break-scans-posted.131341/)); each box ended up having eight purples /150, four greens /99, and two reds /50. Meanwhile, only two of the boxes had a blue (the other box had four autos instead of three). There's another box break posted here (https://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/threads/whos-up-for-a-live-2006-upper-deck-special-f-x-box-break.101986/#post-1629478), which resulted in seven purples, five greens, two reds, and one blue.

I didn't find the Gomes until 2022, 16 years after release. There's a thread here (https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1540919) about finding it, which shows the photo from the lot. It truly was the proverbial rare card lost in a commons box—it was listed in a lot of 22 Gomes cards, all others of which were commons, and I had to squint to see that it might be the blue.

https://www.thepclist.com//images/players/149/f-6964.jpg

Took me about the same amount of time to lock down my Helton blue copy. Still the only one I've ever seen in the wild. Helton has a checklist card as well - never seen a blue of it.

My Rockies team checklists for this product currently stand at - need 6 reds /50, need 3 purples /150 (just found a Clint Barmes yesterday), don't have a checklist for greens but need quite a few.

[89Giants]

Took me about the same amount of time to lock down my Helton blue copy. Still the only one I've ever seen in the wild. Helton has a checklist card as well - never seen a blue of it.

My Rockies team checklists for this product currently stand at - need 6 reds /50, need 3 purples /150 (just found a Clint Barmes yesterday), don't have a checklist for greens but need quite a few.

I opened a lot of this product back in 06 & 07 when my lcs had it for $45 a box. Love the colors, and they remain so cheap to pick up. I always received one blue per box and assume they are limited to 25 copies each. Got one signed in person recently and the player said "oh you got some rare ones".