More on Kiner Sweet Spot Bat Barrel

Looking at Upper Deck's checklist for 2009 Sweet Spot, I figure that I got one of the better case hits from the product. There are only 15 players cards from the Classic Bat Barrel category, and only two 1/1's: DiMaggio and Gwynn.

• 2009 CBBN-CK Charlie Keller 3 Yankees
• 2009 CBBN-DW Dave Winfield 5 Yankees
• 2009 CBBN-GB George Brett 5 Royals
• 2009 CBBN-GC Gary Carter 3 Expos
• 2009 CBBN-JB Johnny Bench 3 Reds
• 2009 CBBN-JC Jose Canseco 5 Athletics
• 2009 CBBN-JD Joe DiMaggio 1 Yankees
• 2009 CBBN-KP Kirby Puckett 2 Twins
• 2009 CBBN-NF Nellie Fox 3 White Sox
• 2009 CBBN-OC Orlando Cepeda 4 Giants
• 2009 CBBN-RJ Reggie Jackson 6 Yankees
• 2009 CBBN-RK Ralph Kiner 2 Pirates
• 2009 CBBN-TG Tony Gwynn 1 Padres
• 2009 CBBN-VP Vada Pinson 2 Reds
• 2009 CBBN-WS Willie Stargell 2 Pirates

Not bad! Out of all of these, I guess the DiMaggio, Fox, Keller and Kiner would be the best. The only thing better to pull as a case hit would have been the Cy Young, Ty Cobb or Walter Johnson cut signatures, all 1 of 1.

I'm not trying to gloat, but its hard not to when this is the best "hit" that I've ever pulled from a pack. I spent the day on Sunday investigating what to do with this card. I've shown it on The Bench, and have a few offers, but none that I feel is sufficient. I'm discussing it with someone now about a private sale locally, but I think my best bet would be to put it on eBay for a starting bid of $500 and a BIN of $1000.

Opinions? Any opinions would be appreciated.

Hit of the Year? Maybe the Decade!

For some reason, lately, I've been interested in getting the "hits" from Sweet Spot. The '08 Sweet Spot has been in the store up until recently, and now that the '09 SS are in, I thought I'd give it a try.

My luck is usually pretty bad, or average at best, so I let someone else pick the pack for me. Tom, the owner, was nice enough to pull out a fresh box, and, going on my judgment from the '08 boxes, I took the pack in the back of the stack. (No, I will not eat green eggs and ham....)

What did I get?

Not great. He even has an Indians' uniform on, but its a Giants card. Meh.

So I had Emily, Tom's daughter and resident good-luck charm, pick a pack for me. I think she picked the 3rd or 4th, and this is what I got:

Holy Shitaake Mushrooms!!!!!!!!!!

This is the biggest name, lowest number, most unique card I've ever pulled. I've only been buying high-end stuff for a short while, but SHNIKEES, this is amazing!

I didn't know much about Kiner, so I went to the Baseball Reference to find out more.

• He was inducted into the HOF in 1975
• He played only 10 years, the first 7 for Pittsburgh
• He finished his career with the Indians in 1955
• He hit .279 for his career, but had a whopping .548 slugging percentage!
• In only 10 seasons, he hit 369 home runs and had 1015 RBIs, for an astounding average of 37 HRs and 101 RBIs per season!

In the similarity scores, three of the top ten he is similar to are Indians: Colavito, Doby and Belle. And by age, he is similar to Colavito, Thome, McCovey and Killebrew. Here's to you, Mr. Home Run. Thanks for the bat!

photo courtesy of Baseball Almanac

Now comes the big question: do I keep it, trade it or sell it?

Looking on the Bay, there are only three similar cards that have sold already.

1. the Canseco bat barrel nameplate that Mario at Wax Heaven talked about that sold for $305
2. an Orlando Cepeda nameplate that sold for $246
3. an Adam Dunn nameplate that sold for $248

That's very, very, VERY enticing, and since this is a 1 of 2, I think it might go for more!

(As an aside, do you believe that an Adam Dunn bat barrel would sell for more than a certified great player and HOFer like Cepeda?!!?!! I can't.)

I think I will keep it for a short time, then sell it. Unless someone knocks me over with a tremendous trade offer that I can't refuse.