Saturday, January 2, 2016

Wallet Card Recap: One Year in the Books!

The first official Wallet Card season comes to a close, with today marking the 1-year anniversary of the original post. Very many people commented words to the effect of "I'm in!" on that post, though the majority of them either never really got into it or petered out after sharing a couple photos early in the year.

Even if you never posted a wallet card picture all year, did you at least keep a card in your wallet this whole time? If so, let's see how it's looking! Show us a photo or scan, and let's check out whose cards are beat to hell after a year of wear. I'm curious to see if any cards made it through the year still in good shape.


Here's my Tony in the final wallet card photo I took in 2015. My wife and I finally went to go see The Force Awakens on New Year's Eve. It was pretty good. Of course it was basically impossible to steer 100% clear of spoilers (people suck), but we did a decent job. It was also the first time I'd ever seen a movie in IMAX 3D, so that was a little extra coolness to the experience.

But back to wallet card, this '88 Topps Tony has obviously seen better days, with lots of surface wear and jacked up edges and corners. Hey, no creases, at least!

I didn't get around to taking as many photos out-n-about as I would have liked to, but as I've mentioned before, I don't have a smartphone, so I don't always have picture-taking capability away from home.

Now for the game heading into 2016, the question is: Will you choose a new card and start the process again? Or will you double down and go a second year with the same card?

The sentimentality of sticking with your cardboard buddy is a strong pull, I'm sure. But on the other hand, it's likely getting beat up and gross by this point, so it might be nice to begin anew with a fresh card. Plus, using a new card is a great way to date your photos. So like, looking back at an old wallet card photo years from now, you'd instantly know what year it was taken, simply by which card is in the photo.

So you can do whatever you want, but personally I chose to pick a new card for this year.


Here's my dog Annie modeling my wallet card for 2016, looking dapper besides the cottage cheese encrusted on her snout.


It was a tough choice for me, but I decided to stick with the Tony Gwynn Topps All-Star card theme, this time going back a year to 1987.

Both the Junior Junkie and Bo have stated they plan to scale back the frequency of their wallet card photos this year, so we'll see if other people step up or not. I think it's fun and I encourage everybody to give it a go. Don't feel pressured to take a bunch of cool pics, but if a neat opportunity comes along, you might end up with something great. Do it! :)

Good luck to everybody who throws a card in their wallet in 2016, and thanks again to everybody who participated in 2015. Let's see those photos!

8 comments:

  1. I didn't participate last year. 1) It was a few days later when I first saw one of the postings about it and thought it was too strange for me. 2) I abused way too many cards years ago when I was a little brat late 60s early 70s and I think I'm still under probation for that. 3) I have NO idea which card I would choose. 4) I'd tend to keep it in the wallet for maximum usage? 5) There is no number five 6) I'd insist on it being a duplicate.

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  2. I might have to give this a shot in 2016. Now, to decide what card I'd use...

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  3. I'm going to double down on my wallet card and will have a post up sometime this month showing the damage a year in a wallet can do to a card.
    BTW, Annie is a good looking dog. Happy New Year!

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  4. I'm doubling down, and like P-Town Tom will do a post showing how my card has done so far!

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  5. I posted early on but had so much other stuff to post about didn't have a chance to post again on it. But you would be very interested to see mine. Let's see if i can post a pic in the next week or so of it on my blog

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  6. I enjoyed it but eventually ran into a serious problem. During the year I had to switch the card sleeve in my wallet, and sadly Kylecard didn't fit in the wallet anymore. There was quite a few things that I wanted to take pictures of him with, but kept forgetting to take the card. Bummed me out to as I had wanted to take him on the broweekend, and take lots of pics, but once again forgot to bring him along.

    I'm planning on seeing if I can find a mini that I like, and will fit in the wallet. If I do then you can plan on seeing a new card going on new adventures in 2016.

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  7. Love how your Gwynn took a beating that a wallet card should. Unfortunately... my choice of card last year (Skybox Emotion) prevented that from happening. It was just too thick and glossy (wait... that just sounds wrong).

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  8. on another note, Annie is gorgeous! A gentle giant!

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