Christmas Cards 2024

Guys, with this post I've bested my record (set last year) for least number of posts on my blog in a year. Hurray! It's a Christmas miracle; 2024 wasn't my least prolific year as a blogger! We're trending upwards!

Let's count down some cool cards numbered 12/25 that I got this year and haven't featured on the blog yet.

#6 Luis Robert, a.k.a. Lou Bob Jr., had a down year in 2024 with the historically bad White Sox, but he's a guy I've kinda collected since pulling a nice parallel of his back when he first popped onto the scene (1st Bowman mega box parallel). I needed an auto for the PC and eventually landed on this 2022 Topps Definitive card for about the price of a blaster. I'll be interested to see if he gets back on track next season or if his peak is in the rearview now.

#5 Spencer Strider made a big splash a year ago before being sidelined by Tommy John surgery. I landed this nice Five Star auto a few months back. He's another guy I hope is able to bounce back next season.

#4 is a Yogi Berra bat relic from 2005 Topps Pristine Legends. I'm working on a refractor version of the base set, and while I'm not actively trying to complete any of the hits, sometimes they pop up in my searches, and if the price is right, I might take a run at it... especially if it's serial numbered 12/25.

#3 - I had an eye out for a Max Scherzer autograph and landed this solid one from 2014 Topps Five Star. It pairs nicely with a similar Christmas Card I've got of another of the era's top starting pitchers...

Twice the holiday dominance! I was thinking how cool it would be if I could get a Verlander to go with these, but looks like Justin wasn't in Five Star that year, so no chance to match up with these guys. But maybe I'll score a different Verlander auto in 2025. Trying to nab autos of these "no doubters" before they're enshrined.

#2 is a big boy: Albert Pujols! I wanted an autograph as the cherry on top of my Pujols PC and, again, figured I'd better do it now before he's up for Cooperstown and his card prices see a bump. I held out for a Christmas Card, and wound up with this Leaf Pro Set "LFG!" acetate. That must stand for "Let's friggin' go!" as the kids like to say these days to psych themselves up. On the downside, it's an unlicensed stickergraph, but it otherwise looked cool to me and the price was right.

Drum roll for the #1 card in our Christmas Card countdown...

...

...

#1 - Ichiro auto! And it's licensed and on-card. Glad I got him in a Mariners uni, too. It's from 2020 Topps Transcendent, my first ever pickup from this popular high-end set, if I'm not mistaken. The metal frame is a classy touch. "[ OF ]" in the bottom corner nearly looks like "1 OF 1", but no, it's even better than that! It's 12/25!

Have a wonderful December 25th, everyone! And Merry Christmas, too, if that's your thing!

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.

Christmas Cards 2023

I still buy new cards for my "12/25" collection every once in a while. Here's the big one I picked up this year..

Flipping through a childhood binder of mine recently reminded me that the Big Unit is a guy I've PC'd since my first days in the hobby, proudly paging a bunch of early Randy Johnson cards together. I'll loosely count that as a prospecting success contrasted against cards of Kevin Maas and Pat Listach in the binder. And I've enjoyed casually adding to the PC after returning to the hobby as an adult, but I had never gotten around to landing an autograph. So I had been keeping an eye out for one-- specifically a Christmas Card, since a lot of times I figure if I've decided to shell out a few bucks for an auto, might as well go all-in for one that's a double-bullseye for my collection, right? I eventually ended up with this cool metallic sig from 2023 Topps Tier One. Looks great and caps off the PC nicely.

- ❄  - - ❅  - - - ❆

Sportscards From The Dollar Store showed off his Robert Smith auto the other day, so hey, I'll go ahead and show mine! Again, I found a 12/25 issue to snag, settling for a stickergraph. I was planning to make a custom overlay for it anyways; See...

I made a custom in the style of the officially-released MST3K autographs to show Robert's brief guest-spot on the show. So that's laid on top of the real card, and since it's me, I had to extend the window for the signature to include my favorite serial number.

My wife isn't the fan of the show that I am, but she allows me to force a little on her on my birthday, so we've got a double-feature of the classic MST3K Christmas episodes playing today.

- ❄  - - ❅  - - - ❆

I don't really "keep up with modern cards" as far as my player collections of past greats, because unless maybe you just focus on one lower-tier guy, there's just too much being churned out these days. But sure, every once in a while it's fun to buy a shiny new Hoyt Wilhelm card. And of course it's easier to sucker me in when it's a Christmas Card.

Ho Ho Hoyt!

- ❄  - - ❅  - - - ❆

I'm my house, the Ryan Express is representing on the tree this year.

I didn't really get the idea till it was too late in the season, but assuming I'm still side-hustling late next year, I should do something with tree ornament cardart along these lines. Right? Mixing lots of red and green, maybe even ham it up adding Santa hats and such.

- ❄  - - ❅  - - - ❆

Last for today, here's a Christmas nice gift I got from my buddy Doug that I figured I'd throw into the post. He got me a nice personalized capo and pick. I've told the story before, but it was back around the heyday of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice when Doug and I would b.s. about our forthcoming career in hip-hop. He was MC Doolay and I was DJ Defgav, and that's how I got the "defgav" handle that I use online sometimes. Funny how life works out. Years ago he got married to an awful woman back home in East County San Diego, then moved up here after he got divorced, and has since married a lovely woman. While I didn't introduce them or anything, hey, I was motivation for him to start fresh in Portland, so it makes me happy to at least play a part in a couple finding each other. He's a good dude.

That'll wrap up the post. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Vottograph

Quick post to show off this Joey Votto auto I scored the other day.

I think it took over a year, but I eventually found a "Christmas (on)Card (auto)" in the price range I was looking for. Now my Joey Votto PC is in a place of "good enough" for my mind, which is always a happy feeling. With some rookies and relics already acquired, the all-important "trifecta" has been achieved.

A Trifecta Pyramid! lol

And it's his 40th birthday today! He celebrated in style with a home run fresh of the IL. Great dude and fun ballplayer.

Here's a partial rainbow of his 2015 Bowman's Best card, just to squeeze a little more refraction into the post.

Thanks for reading and have a great week. 

I'll throw in a couple cute Ruby pics from the other day, as I think Mr. Votto would want it that way.

Been at this for a decade now

Hey, here are some cards I got in trade from my buddy Dennis at TMV. He found some autographs he was interested in from my trade bait page, and we were able to hammer out a deal that resulted in big help to vintage setbuilds of mine. 

I've been after a second-year Garvey for a long time. Needed it for my set (129 cards left to go.. pretty much all high numbers or variations), plus he's a solid PC guy of mine thanks in no small part to his Padres tenure (growing up in San Diego in the '80s, as I did). Being a tough high-number, I'm unlikely to score a dupe for the PC anytime soon, so I'll be content with just the one.

And how about another Dodgers legend? Freshly-minted Hall of Famer Gil Hodges was probably the biggest name left on my '57 Topps needs. Just 80 more cards left to go, and none of those should run me much into double digits. I should probably hit that quest harder, hunting down deals on my remaining needs and finally sticking a fork in what's my longest-running setbuild. --Scratch that, my blog archives reminded me that 1964 Topps was in the works (and still is) when I officially declared I'd be trying to complete a set of 1957 Topps back in February 2017.

Typically when I get a player's '57 Topps card, that's my oldest card of the guy, with my collecting focus not often stretching back past the 60s, but I'm very happy to own a beat-up Bowman rookie of Gil Hodges. Cool to add another playing-days card of the man.

Anyways, those 2 cards would have been fine in exchange for the pair of autographs Dennis was interested in, but he kindly threw in another cardboard heavy-weight to take the return over the top...

Yes, the Klutts rookie second-year! This was the main hurdle in finishing my 1978 Topps build. Just 34 cards left there, nearly all commons.

And for good measure, a new Gavin and 12/25 card from the set containing the most Christmas Cards ever, 2008 Topps Moments & Milestones. Chase Utley, not too shabby.

Thanks again for the trade, Dennis! Always a pleasure.

- - -o

I had some other Gavins and Christmas Cards I've been meaning to post about, so I guess I'll do that here. The below were all eBay buys. I don't focus as much these days on either minicollection, though once in a blue moon I'll do a search and see if I can find anything cool cheap. But I also have a saved search for cards that are both Gavins and 12/25.. and are autographs. Like this pair..

Gavin Williams again on the left. He's likely to crack the majors this year with Cleveland. And a pitcher named Gavin Stone (whom I also have a 12/25 auto of) made his debut for the Dodgers earlier this year. Two new MLB Gavins in the same year?! What a time to be alive. As a kid growing up with it being an uncommon name, never thought I'd see that day.

A better look at the numbering. The other guy, Gavin Stedman, is still an amateur, so we'll see if he ends up doing anything notable in the sport. Remember back when I collected Gavin Lux as an amateur? Then he was a 1st round pick and did well in the minors and his cards were really hot there for a moment? (I didn't sell any of his cards then, not even my dupes *kicking myself*) And then he struggled and then got hurt, and now his cards aren't worth much? The cardboard lifecycle. Now that I've been back in the hobby for over a decade, I've seen it plenty of times, and it's probably why I don't mess with modern cards much anymore.

This trio of Christmas Cards are the result of some more bids that came out on top. I don't collect Nick Fortes, just taking a flyer on a cheap 12/25 RC. Dick Williams is a PC guy (Pads in the Hall), and I don't think I had a relic of his, so that helped me go after this ugly card featuring a b&w photo of Dick with his back turned pooping out a white swatch. I sure don't chase modern Pinnacle at all (honestly never that big on Pinnacle even in its prime), but it was the cheapest Juan Soto christmas card I could find, so I went for it.

- -o

Oh, it's my 10 Year Blogiversary today, June 15. Normally I'd make a bigger deal of it, but I'm more in a working-on-stuff mindset at the moment, with some creative projects in the works that I'm excited to share soon. I'll try to do a "celebrating 10 years of Baseball Card Breakdown" thing later this summer, perhaps with a contest/giveaway aspect. But can't get to that today.

Oh wow, it's not serious, but technically speaking I just now found out I have cancer while working on this post. It's just a little basal cell skin irritation on my back that needs a 15-minute procedure to burn off and isn't at all likely to spread anywhere, but still, yikes. (Finally went to the dermatologist for the first time as an adult earlier this week.)

Ok then. Thanks for reading! Got a COMC package due tomorrow, so you'll likely be hearing from me again soon!

Christmasy Cards pt. 1

Just about Christmas. Here are some festive cards.

I likely I have more red/green card siblings, but this couple pairs jumped to mind.

While the refraction on this 2021 Chrome Anniversary parallel was a bit of a letdown in hand-- barely more shine than a foilboard card-- I was still very happy to pick up a Hoyt Wilhelm Christmas Card earlier this year.

Ho Ho Hoyt!

Bruce Sutter sadly passed away earlier this year. When this card popped up on eBay in the wake of his death, I overpaid some for it, but not because he just died but because it was numbered 12/25 and so I would have overpaid for it anytime.

RIP, Mr. Sutter.

The rough and tough Charlie Hough!

Numbered 12/25 as well!

Last Topps Retired card for this post is a very merry Maz. Woo, that's a lovely card!

12/25 to boot!

My buddy Wes sent me a Christmas Card with a card for christmas inside.

Thanks Wes (and Amy)!

Bo hooked me up with some '92 Leaf black gold needs from a recent haul of his. Thanks, Bo!

Here's Ruby enjoying some of our recent inclimate weather. 

K, guys, I know Baseball Card Breakdown had a down year-- not even nominated in the "Favorite Blogs to Read" category this year at Nachos awards, ouch!-- but I'm tryin to get on anti-anxiety meds that should hopefully help me get my shit together. Plus I may be "back to the office" in 2023, and honestly that would be good for the blog because the heyday of this blog was written during downtime at work, pre-covid. So we'll see.

Christmasy post part 2 is coming in a few hours with all the "holiday surprise" '91 Fleer doodles.

See ya soon, and Merry Christmas!