2014 TOPPS FINEST AUTOGRAPH REDEMPTION #2
The baseball-card hobby slept on Jacob deGrom.
Just about every middling to marginal prospect in the sport is afforded an autographed rookie card in one of the numerous brands under the Topps umbrella, but deGrom and his Samsonian locks were nowhere to be found in the early 2014 sets.
He appeared in the 2014 Bowman and Bowman Chrome issues, with the typical dazzling array of colorful parallels, but none of these cards were inked.
However, Topps did hedge their bets when they released the Finest set by including three somewhat generic rookie autograph redemption cards. This allowed them to adhere to their production schedule while still leaving some wiggle room to recognize under-the-radar breakout stars.
Last week, Topps announced the lineup of three players, and the company included a bit of a curve in the mix: card #1 will be an autographed chrome reprint of the 1955 Sandy Koufax rookie card, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of that landmark piece of cardboard.
Card #3 will belong to Twins rookie slugger Kennys Vargas, whose first name makes me want to insert an apostrophe so as to make him the Vargas that belongs to Kenny.
And collectors lucky enough to pull redemption card #2 will be the eventual owners of the first certified Topps autograph card of the presumptive National League Rookie of the Year, Jacob Anthony deGrom.
Topps produced only 100 of these cards, and the hunger for a deGrom signature has pushed the asking price up over $250, so smash those piggy banks and raid those college funds, y’all…
Are you the proud owner of this redemption card or is this just a scan? Either way, I expect it will be in the collection sooner rather than later and that an updated post will be forthcoming…
No, this is a pirated scan. I might get one– it all depends upon how my current auction of a 1/1 Derek Jeter Allen & Ginter card turns out…
Nice detective work!