Buster Posey Rookie Cards

Buster Posey is an exciting young player and is making his first All-Star appearance and start in this year's All Star game. I am excited my fellow Giants fans ensured his selection by demonstrating tremendous support at the ballot box.  Many say Buster's future may be without wearing the Tools of Ignorance but I hope he stays behind the plate for a few more years.  I think he calls a good game and there are few catchers that his as well as Buster.

Recently I picked up a couple of rookie cards that were missing from my Giants collection.  I decided to take a look and see how many "official" rookie cards he has and how many I have in my collection.  To my surprise, he only has 10 cards that are listed in Beckett as rookie cards.  I thought I would list out the cards and show you the ones that I do have.  I will also include Book Values for those who care about those kinds of things (need to make my Beckett online subscription worth something).

First up is the Bowman RC.  This one is a nice picture of Buster warming someone up in his Giants cap and catcher's gear.  This one has a BV of $10.

Next up is a Bowman Chrome Draft card.  This card illustrated a follow through of a swing, I am pretty sure he made some nice solid contact.  BV = $8

Next up is the non Chrome version of Bowman Draft.  Same picture as before, just not shiny.  BV = $5

The final Bowman brand card rookie card I have in my collection is the Bowman Platinum.  This one shows a post swing photo as well but it looks to me that he may have missed this pitch.  BV - $10

Up next is his base Topps issue.  I love this card with him in his practice black jersey carrying his catchers mitt and his mask.  This one is somewhat iconic already haven been reprinted in 2011 Topps.  It carries a BV of $12.

Topps 206 is the next one and it is probably my least favorite card front.  Virtually every card in this set has a capless player close up.  Buster is sporting a nice grin but still, I wish it were a better picture.  BV = $8

To me, this is a vintage tribute done right.  This is probably my favorite Buster rookie.  A classic baseball pose with his bat slung over his shoulder looking off into the distance - screams old school baseball card.  The coloring is perfect as well and I like the placement of the rookie logo.  BV of this Allen and Ginter work of art is $10.

This card is my runner up to the Ginter card for favorite.  I am a fan of the 1961 Topps design, and love the 2010 Rookie Star on the front of this card.  Wish Topps could have gotten rid of the RC logo on this one.  Heritage is one of my favorite releases and this design and photo don't disappoint.  BV = $12.

Pretty nice painting on this National Chicle RC. I really like the Giants patch proudly displayed on his arm.  Again a pretty classic pose and the picture is a pretty good likeness.  This card carries a BV of $10.

The last Topps issue is also one of the most affordable and available.  Opening Day typically uses the same photo as the base Topps issue and adds in an Opening Day logo and 2010 didn't disappoint.  The $8 BV is tied for second lowest but this card seems to be the most available on the secondary market for a good price.

Finally we have 2010 Upper Deck Series 1, looking like the only UD issue we will see with Buster featured in quite some time.  I bought 3 boxes of this stuff and quite a few packs and was lucky enough to pull 2 of this card, one for my set and one for my Giants collection.  It is a nice looking card with the UD rookie logo and carries a BV of $25 - the highest of the official rookie cards I have.

I do have another card from Topps Chrome with the rookie logo on it that is not an official RC card that I thought I would share.  It was a wrapper redemption Topps Chrome Refractor.  There were some colored versions and auto versions but I was lucky enough to get this one in my pack.  This card also has a $25 BV on it, I sure wish Buster had been included in the regular set.

 So I mentioned there were 10 and the Chrome card above is not an official one so those of you good in math probably figured there are 2 I am missing.  I am missing the Bowman Sterling card.  I haven't seem too many of these around, in part I am sure because it is a pretty high end product and most people probably flipped the hits and stuck the base cards aside.  The final one is the Finest.  In Finest, they counted the manupatch auto cards as rookies.  There are 1420 Buster's floating around (284 per letter in his last name) but the book for $100 and I haven't seen too many available for much under that. I will probably start keeping my eye out for the Sterling card but guess that Finest will remain outside my collection for quite some time.

The National Chicle and Bowman Chrome Draft cards were recent pick ups from a 55 card Giants lot I picked up from a seller on SCF. I plan on sharing some of the other highlights once I get a chance to scan them all.  Hope you enjoyed the Buster Posey Rookie card tour.