The card show comes to me

Saturday was a first for me, having not one but two fellow cardbloggers hand-deliver boxes of cards to my door. How great is that?! First was Kevin from The Diamond King who was down in my neck of the woods Saturday morning for the local card show. Then in the afternoon, Rod from Padrographs dropped off another box while I was out walking Ruby. Plus I received one eBay pick up in Saturday's mail, one that happens to be a triple-bullseye for my collection: Christmas Card of a PC guy in my #1 set, 2004 Topps Retired refractors (and it was cheap). Oh, happy day!

Starting off the recap with a royal visit from The Diamond King. This came about because I had been working up a few neat Mark McGwire cardart things with the intention of putting them on eBay for my continuing side-hustle trying to generate enough income to where my wife won't hound me to find another real job quite yet, and generate enough walks to the post office to keep my crazy dog tired. Since Kevin is a big McGwire collector, I figured I'd check if he was interested in trading me for any of them. I know cardart ain't for everybody, so I try not to force it on folks if they don't want it, but I feel guilty if I don't at least offer my buddies dibs on anything they might like of their top PC guys.

Anyways, he was agreeable to trade and a few days later brought me over some great stuff. I think the only other time Kevin and I met in person was when he dropped off cards back at my old house, and we moved in 2020, so it's been a few years. Nice to see him again and have a little chat over cards.

The bulk of what he had for me was a nice lot of Kellogg's for my long-term collecting goal of putting together a run of those classic cereal cards. Excited to check these off my wants.

He also had a bunch of supervintage he offered me since he knows I'm into old stuff like that, with the caveat that who knows if this stuff is legit or perhaps reprints or even counterfeits. Sometimes you just find random stuff digging through cards at a card show and you roll the dice on card that might be something or might not. But yeah, regardless, these are neat additions to the pre-war randomness in my collection, hopefully working a few of them into my Vintage Frankenset project.

I've never been hunting and only went fishing a couple times in my youth, but I can still appreciate the interesting artwork on this series. The last card is "Ratting" and features a young lady swinging a stick at a rat.

Nice minicollection hits for me here.. The top cards are both 12/25 and the bottom lucky lady is 1/3. Love the green ink! Ryan Shamrock is a ring name for Alicia Webb, a.k.a. Symphony, who had a brief pro wrestling career around the turn of the millennium.

Some modern cards of my Padres.

I hope Trout has a good comeback season. The first card seems to be an oddball from 2021.

Some favorites of the past. The '75 Thurman was a need for my setbuild Kevin had just picked up for me at the card show. What a guy! I also needed the Reggie image variation for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset.

Kevin had a big stack of serial numbered cards for a future giveaway and was kind enough to let me go through and cherry-pick out some PC guys of mine, heavy on the Kris Bryant.

Thanks again, Kevin! Great to swing the in-person exchange with you. Hope we can do it again before too long.

-  - --o

While Ruby and I were out on a nice little hike around the local golf course, Rod was popping by with a box of cards to leave at my doorstep. Sorry I missed him, but excited to thumb through the stack of cards he had available for me.

Love to score cards of the various hot young players that don't make it into my collection much these days since I don't rip new stuff or hit the card show anymore.

There were a few hundred cards in the box, mostly from Rod's recent box busting extravaganza probably, with a big chunk of them fitting into my collection like the PC additions above.

Oh buddy.. glow-in-the-dark dinosaur sticker. Rod is a champ always looking out for glowing stuff for me!

Big thanks, Rod! Always a blast getting cards from you. I hope I catch you next time.

-   - - --o

And then here's that sweet eBay win that came in to really round out the day...

Vida Blue! It's a weird photo choice, but still!

This is an "upgrade" to the 22/25 refractor I already had. Lucky for me the seller botched the listing a bit and I ended up getting this one cheaper than I expected.

There are a total of 76 cards in the 2004 Topps Retired autographs. Of those 12/25 "Christmas Cards" in existence, I've now got 11 of them. That's over 14% of the Christmas Cards in 2004 Retired (which is "the set" my collection is built around, basically). So that's kinda cool!

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Dave Stieb 2004 Topps Retired refractor.. from a while back

Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb is a new 4-part documentary up on YouTube. Oh man.. So, so good. I knew of Dave Stieb as arguably the best pitcher of the 80s yet who often got short-changed, but the doc shines light on some incredible storylines that either slipped by most baseball fans or were quickly forgotten as the game of baseball rolled along. I don't watch much sports-related stuff on YouTube these days, and my attention span for "deep dives" makes it tough for me to stick with longer stuff like this, but this was right up my alley. It balanced stats and humanity of the game well, with countless fascinating coincidences and one-in-a-million outcomes peppering the path of Stieb's unlikely career.

There's heartbreak, with Stieb having some brutal hard-luck baseball moments, and not getting a whole lot of respect outside of Toronto despite modern stats showing he deserved better, particularly in regards to Cy Young voting. But by the end I was misting up a little with happy tears. It's just a great baseball story and well-told by the guys at Dorktown/Secret Base.

But dang it.. I, too, am guilty of slighting Dave Stieb. 

Over the history of this blog, it's been my M.O. to do a post featuring any new 2004 Topps Retired refractor auto as I get them. They've been my top collecting goal of the past several years, so it's always a big deal for me to knock another name off the list (Currently down to just Trammell). But back in September of 2016 when I harpooned "Captain Ahab" here... welp, that happened to arrive just as a big COMC delivery was being parsed through, and left me with too many things to blog about and eventually refractor Dave just got filed away without ever getting the salute on the blog he was due.

Better late than never, right?!

A beauty, no doubt. Early, pre-stache photos on the front and back.

While the doc may have helped push Stieb's name back into baseball nerd conversations, doesn't look like his hobby love has seen much of a bump. But perhaps the members of the Hall of Fame's Modern Baseball committee will catch the doc and help atone for the sins of baseball writers past by at least giving him a closer look and seeing the story beyond what the back of a baseball card can tell you, and who knows, maybe they'll even let Dave slip into Cooperstown along with should-be-shoo-ins Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich. But I hate getting too hung up on tired HOF debates. Bottom line is I'd recommend any baseball fan check out the documentary if you're into that sort of thing.

Part 1

Black Refraction Appreciation Society

If you like black refractors from 2004, this is just the post for you.

I recently upgraded the Duke Snider card in my 2004 Topps Retired refractor auto set (still only missing Trammell).

Christmas Card! My 8th 12/25 card from 2004 Retired.

Around that same time, I received a friendly email from a reader I've transacted with a bit in the past, Eric P. He was on the hunt for a couple particular Dave Winfield cards from 2005 Retired, though I was unable to aid in his quest. Then he surprised me with an offer to send me a bunch of 2004 Chrome black refractors as a gift of appreciation for the blog. Awesome! They arrived in a glorious mailday at the same time as the yuletide Duke.

Look at that-- another encased Duke. Yes, it was a rare Double Duke mailday!

Tom Glavine was another highlight from the lot. Always nice to check Hall of Famers off a setbuild.

Mike Lieberthal here is my first in-person autographed 2004 black refractor. Love it! While the thought has crossed my mind, I'm probably not willing to get serious about getting more of these cards signed myself-- too much money and energy to try to make happen with private signings or whatever-- but definitely don't mind if they fall in my lap.

Some fan favorites of the cardsphere. Do you have that Tino, Lost Collector? It's a beauty.

More solid names.

And there were a bunch more too, but just wanted to show some highlights.

Before this invigorating jolt to the parallel setbuild, I was a little over 60% complete (293/487). After Eric's generously gifted needs, I'm on the cusp of three-quarters done, now checking in at 73% complete (356/487). With just 131 cards left to track down, this crazy project of mine might actually have a shot at completion someday if I keep at it.

Shortly after that mailday, I upgraded another 2004 Retired refractor.

Robin Yount was one of the first '04 Retired refractors I bought back in 2013. But since then, I've kinda wanted to upgrade because the signature on that one was a touch faded. So feels good to snag this one with a bold signature. (I've been coming to the realization lately that these cards shouldn't be left in the light for long or the ink will start to fade. After these photos, banished to the deep, dark box!)

Taking photos in direct sunlight can be tricky, lol. It's not the Christmas Card, but does have neat "ebay 1/1" numbering seeing as Robin's jersey number was 19.

And the twist to this post is that every card came from Eric P. Yep, he sent all those black '04 Chrome cards and was the seller of the Snider and Yount auctions. I didn't even realize it at the time of that first mailday and I was very confused for a brief moment when 2 packages from him showed up.

Thanks again, Eric! You're a true saint of black refraction, as far as my collection is concerned.

Have a great weekend, everybody, and thanks for stopping by.

refract like no one's watching

Here are the rest of the 2004 Topps Retired refractors I picked up during a big setbreak on eBay back in June.

This one was an upgrade. I bought the 10/25 Wally Joyner earlier this year, but it lacked a bold, blue signature. Happy for the chance to nab this one, even if in hindsight I wouldn't mind taking a mulligan on the earlier purchase. (But hey, Wally is a PC guy of mine, so no harm having another copy, I suppose.)

This one is 13/25, and while a touch of triskaidekaphobia might knock it down a notch in my eyes, definitely not a deal-breaker. If the 12/25 ever pops up, though, you can bet I'll throw a nice bid on that.

Speaking of which, here's another upgrade for me. I already had the 14/25 Eckersley, which looks totally fine, but I'm a sucker for Christmas Cards, and ended up winning the yuletide Eck for a solid price.

The Ryne Sandberg 12/25 was also part of this setbreak, but quickly crept up too rich for my blood. Of the 76 cards in this refractor autograph set, I own 7 of the Christmas Cards. I know it's not feasible to think I could ever get 'em all, but I'll probably at least keep an eye out for them for the remainder of my card-collecting days.

I'd never seen a refractor of Blackjack McDowell for sale before, though the base version of this card is very common.

AL Cy Young winner in 1993, but injuries prevented him from really filling out his career, having a rough latter half of the 90s.

Last for today, McDowell's teammate on the '95 Yanks, Jimmy Key. Jimmy must have a supercollector out there or something, because I ended up paying more for this one than I had expected-- more than the corresponding Mike Schmidt from the same break, even!

Jimmy played a big part in that first Blue Jays championship squad. Then he signed with New York and missed out on the repeat in '93, but still got himself another ring in '96.

Ok, that wraps it up. Might be a while till I show off another 2004 Retired refractor on the blog. I'm down to needing only Alan Trammell. (And the other 69 Christmas Cards, lol.)

An Orel Quicky

It's Orel Hershiser's 63rd birthday today, and that's good enough motivation to get around to showing off the 2004 Topps Retired refractor I picked up recently.

Not a lot of free time today, so I just took a bunch of photos and hoped that one turned out good enough for the post. None of them did, so here are a bunch of bad ones instead...

Some pretty good seasons there. Not a Hall of Famer, but he doesn't have all that many certified autos on the market and Dodgers fans understandably love the guy, so his autos usually command "HOF" prices. This was the first '04 Retired refractor I've seen of his pop up for sale, and I wasn't about to let it get away.

It essentially upgrades me from the base auto I had of this card, which is now expendable. So any Dodgers fans reading, feel free to tempt me with a trade offer for that one. Otherwise, it'll be added to my stack of "high-value trade bait" / "cards to get around to selling someday".

Happy Birthday, Bulldog!

Yogi all over again (making a Dent in 2004 Retired refractors)

I was excited to score this beautiful Yogi Berra auto for my 2004 Retired refractor set recently.

Heck of a career and a World Series ring for every finger. Despite no red ink stats on the back, Berra was MVP three times. One of the most amusing characters in the history of the game, to boot. 

This card was actually an upgrade for me.

Yep, I now have 2 of these cards. The first one I bought way back when I originally started targeting these refractors (I initially set out to only complete the '04 Retired base auto set, or a mix of base and a few refractors, but the refractors' siren song gradually pulled me in and my goal morphed into completing the refractor parallels instead.) But I had hoped for the chance to upgrade my Yogi to one with a bold, blue the signature. My guess is a previous owner left the card displayed in the sun for too long. Doesn't seem to have faded further in the several years I've owned it. (You can see it way back in my blog's first real post, with a COMC watermark, before I pulled the trigger on it.) If any reader doesn't mind a partially faded auto and wants to make me a trade offer for the card on the left above, it's available.

Coincidentally, in the few hours I had this post in the works, a base Yogi auto from this set popped up on eBay, and it also features a black signature, though not as faded as mine. Hmm. Maybe he used an old black sharpie for signing some of these cards? Weird.

Anyways, while we're on the topic of Yankee heroes, here's another one-- to a lesser extent, but stil...

Another recent pickup. Bucky Dent is an anomaly in 2004 Topps Retired because he's the only player included in the autograph checklist who doesn't also have a base card in the set. His base auto is very common (mine is now available for trade, btw), but I had never encountered a Bucky refractor until this one came along.

Better known for his glove, Dent's career batting record isn't all that impressive. Came up clutch in 1978, though.

Glad to check these Yankees off the list as I near the end of this epic collecting adventure of mine.