These aren’t mine but I know the seller and can 100% vouch. He’s at IG: @collect_like_a_champion
Prices:
Legacy Collection row 0 /100 $130
Embossed silver $125
International refractor $75
Ultra platinum 99/99 bookend $115
THE EVENTS
2013 was a tragic and a miraculous year for Boston. In April, a terrorist bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed several people, and injured nearly 300 more.
In the wake of the attacks, the city united around the theme of resiliency, exemplified by the "Boston Strong" motto coined by a couple of Emerson College students. That year's Red Sox team became a focal point for this sense of shared identity. Even people with only a vague sense of these events might remember David Ortiz's speech, delivered just 5 days after the bombing in front of a giant flag before a home game at Fenway, where his line "This is our fucking city" went out live over the airwaves uncensored.
That Red Sox team went on to win the 2013 World Series, and as frivolous as it may seem when held up against actual death and carnage, that win was cathartic for a lot of people. Myself included, as a Boston native.
THE CARDS
For the past several years, I've been collecting cards that commemorated those events. The best-known of these is the 2013 Topps David Ortiz "Flag Speech" image variation #595. That's the card that started me on this project, and I was lucky enough to have a friend bring my copy to the Fenway Card Show several years ago, where Big Papi signed it and inscribed it with exactly the phrase you'd want on that card.
There is also a 2013 Topps Chrome image variation (Baseballcardpedia calls these "gimmicks") with the same photo, but a much smaller print run. That card took me about a year of searching to track down.
2013 Topps Update featured an interesting "Boston Strong" parallel. This parallel was printed only for Red Sox players, and featured that phrase in red foil across the front of the cards, with a serial number /50 on the back. "Boston Strong" cards were printed both for Red Sox in the Update set itself and for those who had already appeared on 2013 Topps flagship cards. (In both cases, the numbering of the original card was used, which is a little bit confusing; the Ortiz "Boston Strong" card is thus #595 — his number from 2013 Topps series 2 — even though the card itself is part of the 2013 Topps Update set.)
I don't have all of the Boston Strong cards, but I do have what I consider the two hardest cards to find in Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia, and I'm happy with those as a start.
PAUL BEN REVERE
But there was one more card I had to find.
Ben Revere is close to the last player you'd expect to end up on a "grail" card. He was a glove-first center fielder who amassed less than 10 WAR in an 8-year career. He had no power (his career started with the longest homerless streak since the 1970s, almost 1500 at-bats). He was reputed to have "one of the weakest arms in baseball." He ran well and hit decently for contact, but had an OPS+ under 100 every one of his years in the bigs. He retired at 29 with 7 career home runs.
Revere doesn't even appear on the card I consider his grail. It's a photo of his hat and his glove, with some tape on it.
On the evening of April 15, just hours after the bombing, the Cincinnati Reds were streaming President Barack Obama's comments about the attack live on the scoreboard while the visiting Phillies took batting practice. Phillies CF Ben Revere covered part of his glove with white tape and wrote "PRAY For Boston" in black sharpie.
(Revere made a couple of great catches in the game, although the Phillies lost 4-2 to the Reds. Incidentally, current Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman earned the save for the Redlegs.)
Though little-remembered today, his impromptu tribute to the victims of the bombing was itself memorialized by Topps in the same 2013 Topps Chrome set that featured the Ortiz flag speech SSP.
"I think everyone was thinking about it," Revere said after the game. "It hurts to see something like that happen."
More than a decade later — and having spent three years looking for a photo of a hat and a glove — I can say that it did hurt, Ben. But it helped to know that other people cared.
First sale to this user. Small sale of a couple of cards, under $10. Great communication and everything went smoothly. Thanks!
Free shipping over $50
I was lucky enough to pick these up from a fellow Sox fan recently. I’m looking to complete the set — and I have a few doubles to trade — so if you’ve got any of the cards I’m missing, please reach out!
• #17 Kevin Millar — Red Sox
• #47 Trot Nixon — Red Sox
• #125 Curt Schilling — Diamondbacks
• #164 Bill Mueller — Red Sox
• #213 Tim Wakefield — Red Sox
• #242 Dave Roberts — Dodgers
• #243 Doug Mientkiewicz — Twins
• #642 Boston Red Sox team card
Wake /199 $30
Damon /170 gold $20
Mo diffractor pop 1 PSA 10 $110
Mo die cut PSA 9 SOLD
Pedro gold proof PR 50 $5
Pedro extra edition /500 $5
JD Martinez RC /60 PSA 7 $90
Lester refractor free to first $50+ purchase
Done several pretty big deals together, including two recently (one small, one sizeable). Excellent seller who I trust.
Happy to send additional pics on any card. Feel free to make offers, worst I can say is no.
Free shipping BMWT over $100, otherwise +5.
(All photos are the same card, just figure I’d show the PSA scans as well as my pics of it.)
Obligatory "I hate to sell this but I'm chasing some PC cards that very very rarely pop up."
Nicely centered, decent corners for a 1. There's some surface print stuff going on, which you can see in the photos.
The special thing about this card is the wet transfer on the back, which gives you a cool outline of that iconic swing behind the text. May not be a selling point for everyone, totally get that, but it was for me and I bet I'm not alone.
How many hundreds of hours did I spend on this game back in 1998 and ‘99?
Couldn’t pass up a signed copy!
Some pickups from here, some from there. Some pc stuff, some stuff I may trade or sell. Super fun week.
Bought some fun Griffeys from this user, who's been around for a long time and I think I've traded with before. Great cards, shipped fast and arrived safe. Thanks!
Bought a couple of slabs from them. First time doing a deal. Cards shipped fast and arrived safe, and I'm happy with the price. Would definitely do another deal.
Amazing what you can do with a good photo setup and one of the shiniest cards they ever did make.
The 2012–2014 Topps Chrome “gimmicks” are a weird little subset. Not quite image variations, they’re prefigure the modern Golden Mirror, but rarer, harder to spot, and only for a few dozen players each year.
Xander Bogaerts’ 2014 gimmick RC features the same photo as his base rookie. The giveaway is the back, printed in Dutch (one of the four languages X speaks). Aruba, where Bogaerts was born, is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. X is the greatest Aruban player of all time, and was actually knighted by the Netherlands after the Dutch national team won the 2011 Baseball World Cup.
Two other players, Jose Abreu and Masahiro Tanaka, got similar native-language back SSPs in the 2014 Chrome set.
Print run on the ‘14 gimmicks was not announced, but with just 10 copies graded at PSA, it’s likely similar to the estimated 25-card run from 2013.
I consider X an underrated player, who has been unfairly measured in recent years against his high contract rather than the quality of his play. I’m lucky to get to watch him regularly in San Diego, but I wish that he, like Mookie, had remained a Red Sox for his whole career.
1999 All-Etch “CY 97-99-00” — $700
2003 /699 “04 WS CHAMP” — $850
If you choose to slab these, they’ll both instantly be pop 1. No other signed copies are in the PSA registry.
Will ship insured and will include the cert from the signing event.
I know these are often in demand. HMU if you need them, I still have the original run in single issues so I'm happy for them to go to a good home for less than eBay prices.