Big McGriffs

Fred McGriff is one of my favorite guys to collect. As a kid growing up in San Diego, I loved having him on the Padres for those 2+ seasons. These days I feel like my McGriff PC is "in a good place" or whatever, and don't seek out additions much anymore though am happy to add a new card here and there. Supercollecting the Crime Dog is best left to professionals such as @ICollectMcGriff. (So happy for him when Fred finally got his call to the Hall.)

But I still have a legit PC in my own right, and I figured I'd show off some big ones in a post. 

I scored the match print photo for Fred's 1991 flagship card from the Topps Vault back in 2018 on sale. Paired up with a standard card here for reference.

They even threw in the file envelope, which is a cool bonus.

Here's another match print photo from the Topps Vault, but for a more obscure card: 1990 Topps TV Glossy All-Star Set.

This was a situation where I had to grab the card off COMC to pair with the rare version of it. Same thing with this next item...

I already showed off my oversized proof 1995 Topps Stadium Club - Ring Leaders insert back in a 2022 post celebrating his HOF induction. But now I also have the normal sized card to compare and contrast.

More "junk" paired with decidedly less junky versions. The Topps Kids is a blank back proof (not just a gimmick like the later Topps Vault blank backs, but rather actually used in production) and the 1992 Leaf (another repeat from my '22 HOF post) is a buyback auto.

Let's close out with this rainbow of 1987 Topps Traded, his "Topps rookie" (FTC). The center card is a homemade mod ("birchwood edition") and the refractor ("retrofractor") is a reprint from 2001.

That'll do it for today. Wishing a Happy Birthday to @ICollectMcGriff! Thanks for stopping by.

Completed Refractor Run: Eric Owens

Here's another collecting project I completed recently: every Eric Owens refractor. All the variations and everything.

Background: Eric Owens was a fan favorite for a couple years on bad Padres teams at the turn of the millennium. He was a scrapy guy who played hard and would deliver an exciting highlight here and there to help keep the season interesting in San Diego. He had already hung up his cleats by the time I returned to the hobby, but going back and collecting his cards brings back fond memories of watching him play, and in turn memories from those days, meandering my way through community college with plenty of freetime to watch Padres broadcasts all summer long. Good times.

So yeah, he's a guy I like to collect, and am somewhat compelled to supercollect. But with all my other active collecting goals keeping me busy, I'm reluctant trying to supercollect anybody besides maybe guys with less than 50 total cards like Dan Walters from last post. TCDB says Eric Owens has 259 cards, and I'm tempted to log my PC one of these days, but I'd be unlikely to ever land them all without putting in significant effort and money (he has some 1996 Select Certified Edition "Mirror" [foilboard] color parallels that can get pricey due to low print runs), so just focusing on refractors seemed like the way to go.

I went through Eric Owens' TCDB checklist and made myself a list of just refractors. The "refractor run" took some patience, but I eventually tracked down them all. Luckily, the final Chrome set he was included in (2004) was the last one before 2005's premiere of the superfractor as we know it, and so there were no 1/1's I had to worry about. Barring anything that slipped by me and/or TCDB, I can now say there isn't an Eric Owens refractor that I don't have.

Without further delay, let's check out all of Eric Owens' refractors.

1996 Finest kicks things off, with both peeled and unpeeled examples.

The Limited Exposure parallels in 1997 Donruss Limited utilize "Holographic Poly-Chromium Technology" though they weren't able to come right out and call them refractors, as Topps has the trademark of using the word refractor in regards to branding trading cards, as is my understanding. But yeah, I'll count this in my refractor run. It's kind of a dumb set, though, with another player on the other side-- some chump named Trey Beamon (Padres) on the back of this one. Actually Eric is on the back, evidenced by the legalese along the right side and card number at the top. He got his first solo Padres refractor in 2000 Chrome. (He was briefly with the Brewers between his stints in Cincinnati and San Diego, but no refractors document that stop.)

In 2001, Owens was included in that year's Topps Chrome set as a Padre, and then after crossing the country to Miami, appeared in the 2001 Topps Traded & Rookies set as a Marlin, both of which had "retrofractor" parallels. Retrofractor seems to just mean Heritage-style refractors where the back of the card is rougher cardboard, which is a nice pairing to the plastic fronts from a tactile perspective. The Topps All-Time Fan Favorites refractors I've been chasing (over 95% complete now!) are also like this.

2002 Topps Chrome has 2 refractor parallels: gold and black (/50).

2003 Topps Chrome trumpets Eric's return to Southern California. Here's our first legit "rainbow" grouping, as Topps started adding more parallels this year. Blue, Silver, Gold, Black, and X-Fractor (the latter of which I've got both factory-encased and freed). This same posed shot is also in flagship 2003 Topps, but of course I'm just interested in refractor parallels here. I really only mention it because they included him in Traded that year, too...

Not sure why Topps bothered, but Eric shows up in 2003 Topps Traded & Rookies even though he was already pictured on the Angels in the main set (both flagship and Chrome), and he definitely wasn't a rookie by that point. Chrome parallels were mixed in with base (paper) for the Traded & Rookies packs that year, with both refractor and X-fractor parallels available. I've again got the X-fractor in both raw and encased ("uncirculated"), which is made more impressive by virtue of it being a /25 card (and sadly, no, neither of my copes is the Christmas Card). Honestly I didn't really set out to get both peeled/unpeeled and encased/unencased variations of Eric Owens refractors where available, originally fine with either, but as the project went on, it just kinda happened and so I leaned into the overkill.

Eric's 2003 season in Anaheim was his last MLB action, yet he shows up in 2004 Topps and 2004 Topps Chrome with this pre-game stretch photo. In reality, he was stretching for the Mariners that spring training, but didn't make the squad, then played for Detroit's Triple A club that year before wrapping up his playing career with a year in Mexico. Anyways, the refractors in 2004 Chrome are base (white), gold, black, and red x-fractor. Of most interest to me are the black refractors; My ambitious longterm set-collecting quest for them is down to a baker's dozen remaining to complete the whole set in black refractors. I had to pick up a dupe Eric Owens for the Refractor Run.

As I said before, for a collecting standpoint it's lucky for me that he didn't stick around long enough to be included in 2005 Topps Chrome, because that's when the superfractor came into play (not to mention printing plates getting packed out by then), so hobby completists had to rethink the old "collect them all" philosophy.

As for Eric Owens' journey, the Angels liked his moxy enough to bring him back as a minor league coach for a few years. He returned to the majors as assistant hitting coach for the Blue Jays in 2015 and 2016. Since June 2024, he's been head coach of his alma mater's baseball team, Ferrum College, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of his native Virginia. Sounds like a sweet gig for him.

Thanks for reading.

Joy of a Completed Player Collection: Dan Walters

Back in November 1991, a Padres catching prospect named Dan Walters was a special guest at a nearby card show. I was able to talk my mom into driving me so I could get him to autograph a minor league card of his I had recently pulled from a pack. I definitely wasn't much of an autograph hound-- I think the only autograph I possessed at the time was of '50s Olympic diver Pat McCormick, who had done a motivational talk at my middle school-- but it seemed like something fun to do. Turns out Dan lived in East County San Diego, and was even an alum of a rival high school, so it wasn't out of his way.

It was pretty cool when he got called up the following June and did a fine job filling in behind the dish the rest of that season. Dan stuck on the roster of his hometown team a couple months into the 1993 season, but as a major leaguer he tapped out a career Padre with 84 total games in the bigs. His last season in pro ball was '96, then he became a police officer. Sadly, he was paralyzed in the line of duty in 2003, eventually passing away in 2020 at age 53.

When I returned to the hobby as an adult, Dan Walters became a PC guy for me, thanks to my brush with him as a kid adding a personal connection (I only got maybe 4 or 5 ballplayer autographs as a kid, and the rest were all old-timers). For a while there I was riding high as his #1 ranked collector at TCDB. Then last year, a collector going by RollingThunder88 entered his impressive collection to the site and overtook me by a few cards. My competitive nature kicked in, and I set out to complete my Dan Walters player collection, hunting down the dozen or so cards I was lacking. Took me a few months utilizing the usual card sources-- eBay, Sportlots, COMC, and a TCDB transaction-- but I was able to land all 43 cards TCDB has listed for him, cementing the title of #1 ranked Dan Walters collector. Woo!

So now let's take a look at a full run of Dan Walters baseball cards.

He's got one card each for the years 1986 through 1989, seen here. Love the bastardized 1986 Topps design of the '88 card. The Astros drafted Dan out of high school, later trading him to San Diego after the 1988 season for pitcher Ed Vosberg.

Here's the early 90s "pre-rookie" stuff. The bottom pair aren't dupes; the one with a bit more shadow visible is from the locally distributed team set version, while the other is retail. Dan spent all 1991 in AAA and played well but was blocked on the depth chart by Benito Santiago and backups Tom Lampkin and Dann Bilardello. Then in '92, he was further tearing it up in Las Vegas-- hitting .394, a special number to Padres fans-- and finally got called up when Benito suffered an injury. 

His first MLB cards are late-season releases from 1992, Traded/Update sets for the most part. The Rated Rookie is from the Update series, only available to pull via special factory sets, so it's tougher than you'd expect a 1992 Donruss card to be. The card at the end here has some meta mojo to it, seeing as it's a San Diego police card issued of a future San Diego police officer.

Now we're into 1993, where the majority of Dan Walters' cards are from.

He was included in most of the major sets that year, getting his share of junk-era rookie cards printed in the millions.

Some oddball stuff, too.

Parallels start becoming more prevalent in '93, with Stadium Club stamping a few "First Day Production" and "Members Only". Upper Deck has the gold hologram variation with it. Looks like that quiet moment taking a knee on-deck was also the image source of his 1993 Topps card, which I've got several iterations of...

Base, gold, blank back, micro, Inaugural Marlins, Inaugural Rockies, and Rediscover Topps buyback (2017).

A closer look at the stamping reveals I've got the silver foil "Rediscover Topps", meaning I could potentially add to this PC assuming there exist blue, bronze, and gold foil versions out there for me to track down (perhaps also for his 1992 Topps Traded card?), though at this point I don't anticipate putting much effort into hunting buybacks. (Welp, ok, I just set a saved search in case something I don't have pops up cheap. At least he never got a Bowman card, so I don't have to worry about buybacks there.)

Dan's production at the plate slipped in 1993, and he spent much of the season back in Las Vegas. When the 1994 baseball card sets came out, he didn't crack a single checklist. 

...But...

..he did get a prominent cameo on Jay Bell's Topps card. Close enough for a dedicated player collector without many options for expanding a PC! I've got the rainbow of base, gold, and bilingual. These (as well as the '93 blank back and Rediscover Topps) are not factored in the TCDB ranking, just some bonus overkill.

This trio out of the mainstream wraps up the cards of Dan Walters:

1994 Osceola Astros 10th Anniversary - This might be the only card in the PC I had to break double digits buying. Not a great looking card, just a black & white sketch of a headshot, but it's scarce (guessing the set was only briefly available at a minor league stadium), so what are you gonna do?

1995 Colorado Springs Sky Sox - A friendly TCDB user sent me this tough card for free after I asked about it. Hobby warm fuzzies, right? I did my part to pay-it-forward a bit by scanning it for the site, as it was Dan's only card without images uploaded. Seems to be a Rolling Rock he's celebrating the PCL championship with in the photo. It's nice that he had that high point to remember at the twilight of his playing days.

1996 Edmonton Trappers - A stoic shot from his final stop as a ballplayer. Kind of a downer to go out on, contrasted by the happy faces on the other 2 cards here. But maybe that's fitting with how his story ended. (Rest in peace, Mr. Walters.)

So there's my Dan Walters supercollection, I guess I can call it. Thanks for checking it out with me.

Topps Retired Triad of HOF 2003 refractor autos

Haven't done one of these in a while. My "Topps Retired Triad" series is where I show off 3 additions to my hoard of Topps Retired Signature Edition cards, which I consider my top collecting priority, as far as allocating hobby funds. While sometimes I mix it up among the 3 years of the product, this post is pure 2003 refractions, and all Cooperstown homeboys, at that. Hitting you with three shots each: a couple different refractings and a shot of the back.

Frank Robinson was a nice one for me to grab recently. 

Looks like a storm brewing behind Frank thanks to the weird reflection in this pic.

An all-time great, no doubt about it.

Robin Roberts is another good one. I've had the base version of this auto for a while, so it was nice to upgrade to a refractor.

Baseball-reference has him at #22 all-time on the list of great pitchers as measured by career WAR, though Justin Verlander might overtake him assuming he keeps pitching adequately for another season or so.

Here's another notable right-hander. This Juan Marichal is a "prodigal son" of a card for me that I'm happy to welcome back to the fold. I scored a refractor a few years back, ended up selling it for a hefty profit to a hobby acquaintance, and thankfully have since lucked into this replacement at quite the bargain. (Now if I could only have similar luck with the Willie Mays ref auto I also sold to Dan.)

I now have 99 of the 119 players with autographs in 2003 Topps Retired, though that's factoring in base autos as well (which I'll ideally upgrade to refractors someday). 

Last off the line here, with 25/25 serial numbering.

Thanks for stopping by. My big COMC order has arrived, so I should have more posts for y'all soon.

Other people's customs

I don't buy customs all that often these days, but coincidentally I scored some recently from two different independent card makers and they both arrived on the same day. One is a set of cards-that-should-have-been '80s Career Cappers by Gio at When Topps Had Balls. The other group of cards are artistic interpretations of cards-that-actually-were (and some that-never-were) by Mark at IDrawBaseballCards.

I love both and figured I'd mix them together in a post.

Kicking off with a terrific pair of 1983 Topps homages.

I won't show all the backs, but I'll give you an idea with these two. In a perfect world I'd love to see full stats on these final tributes, but I know from experience that's a pain to get all lined up. The career highlights are nice, though, and look good in the original design colors. The art cards keep it simple, as you'd expect, but provide the important info.

Rookie mania!

Here are a couple active guys in Acuña and Mookie. The sketch one is a bonus thank-you from Mark. The rest I picked out from his shop from the $1 singles, and a promo code he shared took care of the shipping. Pretty good deal. They're on nice cardstock and everything.

1980 Topps mix.

A trio of 1981 Topps should-have-beens. Yeah, would have been cool of Topps to give a tribute card to Sadaharu Oh, why not?

Hall of Famers who wrapped up their careers in 1983 and could've/should've gotten base card sendoffs in 1984 Topps that might've looked something like this.

Dipping back into the 70s to pair up Pirates and Orioles with 1985 Topps.

1987 Topps representing.

Reggie Jackson and a couple other guys who last took the field during the 1987 season and therefore would have been nice to get a final card of in 1988 Topps.

Finally, we close out with these beauties in the 1989 Topps design, including a fun McGruff/McGriff combo.

So there you have a few neat custom cards I added to my collection the other day. Mad props to Gio and Mark for their fine work.
Thanks for stopping by.

Catching up with incoming cards and things

Time for a big post featuring stuff I've gotten over the past month or two from my homies on the cardsphere, including two guys I've gotten a ton of cards from in recent years, plus two other guys I hadn't traded with in several years.

First up is a bunch of stuff from the esteemed Mr. Zippy Zappy. Similar to what Night Owl was saying the other week, I'm fortunate to still be sent stuff from Kenny and it always brightens my day to see what he graciously jettisons my way.

Pretty sweet lot of LEGO Star Wars minifigs! Not pictured are a bunch of accessories (I didn't get around to clipping on the lightsabers and blasters.)

Here's some 2010-2011 stuff featuring a few early Strasburgs and a Chris Sale RC. My 2011 Topps parallel frankenset has 731 cards in it so far (out of a daunting 1284 goal), yet that Huston Street there at the end is now the first silk parallel in the mix. Silky sweet Street!

Solid player-lots of Hunter Pence and Nolan Arenado, plus some other various baseball of note. 

Lots of in-person or through-the-mail autographs from Zippy's impressive hoard (plus at least one pack-certified auto). Cool to get signatures of the Million Dollar Arm (2014) real guys.

Also a bunch of women's soccer making up the bulk of the non-baseball player autos.

Lots of Star Wars cards, including a couple partial rainbow runs.

More non-sport with a bunch of Stranger Things inserts direct from Topps, by the looks of the top-loaders. Looking forward to watching the final Stranger Things episodes soon and see how that story wraps up.

Cool little Star Wars set that's still sealed.

Wrapping up with a signed master photo and some 1/1 Topps Vault blank backs. There was also a big mousepad/ gaming mat included that I didn't get around to getting a picture of.

Big thanks, ZZ! A lot of cool stuff there.

Stop the presses.. just got another international envelope with a few more cards.

This time it's more signed baseball cards, highlighted by a gold refractor, plus a couple Tulowitzkis.

Thanks again, man. Keep 'em coming! :)

- - --o

From a bunch of stuff mailed across the sea to a bunch of stuff driven over across the neighborhood, next up are highlights from the lastest longboxes I've been fortunate to receive from my buddy Rod at Padrographs.

Getting top billing here are a signed Marie Osmond card, a new Gavin for my collection (in a funky 1989 Topps design remixed MiLB issue), and a Jake Cronenworth 2025 black parallel.

Some recent certified Padrographs, including some prospects and hometown hero Joe Musgrove.

Lots more overflow Padrographs I'm happy to work into my collection.

Big thanks as always, Rod!

- - --o

The Coffee Card Blogger over at Cards Over Coffee and I swapped a bunch of PWEs back when he was known as the Sport Card Collectors guy. But then I stopped going to the local card show and so my trade fodder for him dried up. But I had been sitting on a few NY Giants that I hadn't gotten around to sending him, so I finally did that earlier this summer, surprising him with a PWE for old time's sake.

It was a nice little hobby moment, though the vibe was soured a bit when his return to me fell victim to a ruthless assault.

Oof, the envelope had been aggressively folded longways, creasing all six cards included. Not sure if the mailpiece was just unlucky with a defective sorting machine or if the culprit was a disgruntled mail handler within the Postal Service being malicious in his disregard for the "Do Not Bend" plea as a way to get his own sick jollies.

So that was a bummer. Here's a closer look at the bent cards, with some creases not showing up much in the photo.

I hadn't had that happen before, but then a week or two later I received an eBay win PWE in rough shape that was one card in a top-loader. Even the top-loader was bent into 3 segments, which is pretty hard to do without putting in solid effort. So yeah, that's concerning. Hopefully it's not a trend that persists. The damaged card wasn't all that rare and the seller refunded me with no problem, so it could have been worse. Next time I might not be so lucky. :/

But back to this trade, when I informed him of the sad fate of his outgone mail, Coffee Guy was nice enough to find a few more Padres for me, and thankfully this batch arrived without incident.

Some fun parallels here, highlighted for me by the numbered Khalil Greene.

Who knows if/when we'll swap cards again, but it's been fun. Thanks, man!

-   -   - --o

Here's another blast from the twenty-teens. The last time I did a Time-Traveling Trade with Matt at Diamond Jesters was 2019, so I was overdue. This time I grabbed needs for three 70s Topps sets I'm still slowly working on.

I'm not confident I'll ever complete 1970 Topps, but I'll try to chip away needs here and there.. and who knows, maybe someday.

Completing Topps sets from 1976 and 1977 is a much more feasible goal. I also grabbed a bunch from these two sets in a recent Sportlots order. I'm still just over halfway with '76, but '77 is up to three-quarters done and I'm at the point where I might raid my PCs looking for needs there.

Thanks, Matt!

That'll do it for this post. Hopefully the bottleneck with my blogging is broken now and I'll post more frequently here as the summer subsides. I ended my months-long COMC boycott and begrudgingly overpaid them for a shipment request, so that should show up one of these weeks, and I'll have several posts lined up with stuff from that lot.

Have a great holiday weekend, everybody.

P.S. Update to my previous post...

Tony's looking good enough to call done after less than 3 sunny weeks. Nice! Anybody try to make their own sun-bleached mods?