You Ain't the First

"You Ain't the First" is next on the Guns N' Randoms list. Here are some of my random pickups over the past few weeks.

This ain't the first Graig Nettles auto in my collection, but it's the shiniest. Another card towards my Archives Reserve Master Set. The former SDSU standout set career highs in 1977 with 37 dingers and 107 ribbies as he helped his Yanks get new boat. (sorry, been watching a lot of Letterkenny on Hulu lately. "Boat" means "championship".)

This ain't the first nice Pedro Avila card in my collection.. in fact, my last post featured an autograph version of this 2018 Bowman card Rod was kind enough to give me. But you know how I love cards numbered 12/25. Picked up this Christmas Card cheap a while back.

With combined shipping (flat $1) on the above Xmas Pedro, also snagged this Heliot Ramos 2018 Bowman Tek purple parallel, a promising CF prospect for the Giants.

And along with the aforementioned Pedro and Heliot was this Chris Sale. I hadn't realized there were colored-bordered parales of these neat Tarot of the Diamond cards from 2018 Gypsy Queen (but of course there were), a bright spot of an otherwise forgettable product. While I'm definitely not into all that fortune telling crap (can't believe folks still put any faith in this stuff, but as my facebook feed attests, some do), these arty cards with rounded corners are pretty cool, especially with the "indigo" border making it pop.

I've seen these Topps Pristine "Personal Endorsements" cards on eBay before and always thought they looked kinda lame in the scans, but then I stumbled upon this Darrell Evans stickergraph cheap, a PC guy of mine, and snatched it up. It actually looks really cool in-hand, with the "engraved" effect really dancing in the light. Wouldn't be against picking up more of these.

Finally, this ain't the first Gavin LaValley 1/1 in my collection.. in fact, I'm sure I've got more LaValley 1/1's in my collection than any other player by a wide margin, but I'm still happy to add this cyan printing plate.

I already had the Superfractor and the black printing plate in my quest for a master rainbow.

As of this writing, LaValley is batting 2-2 in spring training 2019. If he keeps up this pace for a full career, he'll be a slam dunk HOFer with a 1.000 batting average! My PC will skyrocket and I'll become rich slowly selling off my collection. Go, Gavin, Go!

Happy Friday, Y'all!

Perfect Crime (Guns N' Randoms)

This post isn't crime related, just the next song up on the list of Guns N' Roses songs that I pull from for post titles when I want to show off some random recent cards I've picked up and can't think of a decent title.

It wasn't exactly a steal (eh? eh? tying it in with the post title), but this slabbed Adrian Beltre rookie was a pretty solid deal and I used an eBay discount code to help me out further. I showed off my Beltre PC a month ago and mentioned the one card I still had a hankerin' for was his 1997 Bowman Chrome card. And so now with this pickup, I'm satisfied and feel like the PC is at peace. (Though a final tribute/sunset card next year with complete [non-truncated] career stats would be nice.)

"Has tools of a Gold Glover at third." It's a rare instance where Bowman's hyperbolic write-ups were correct, as Adrian brought home 5 Gold Gloves.

The rest of the cards in this post are more from my latest COMC order. I think I was just looking for cheap Goldy parallels and ran into this yellow one from 2014 Topps retail. Or maybe I was looking for cheap yellow parallels from 2014 Topps retail and ran into this Paul Goldschmidt. Sad to see him leave AZ. He basically left a team I don't like and joined another team I don't like, so that's not a big deal, but I really thought he was the face of the franchise and had a shot at being a rare-these-days one-team career player. That would have been cool. Oh well.

As for the Caminiti, I don't have much cool inserts from the mid/late 90s, and wanted to snag one of the old Instavision inserts from Stadium Club. Pretty cool card from the past days of holograms on baseball cards.

A couple Padres autos. I was a Carlos Baerga fan when he was a hot rookie in the early 90s. Heartbreaking that the Padres delt him away, but kinda cool that all these years later he gets a card in a San Diego uniform.

I think I was looking through cheap autos, looking for anybody I collected, and found the 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary Ryan Klesko auto for just $1.44.

A couple lumber sweet sigs. I actually bought these to destroy them, the Brian Giles one, at least. I want to pull out the signed wood piece and use it in a big custom with the laundry tag from the game-used pants of his I've been cutting up.. so I can make it a big oversized relic/auto box-topper type extravaganza. I might not get around to that anytime soon, but it's on my to-do list. At least the Giles card already shows some damage around the cutout, so it won't hurt me quite so bad to tear it up. I don't think the wood piece is actually from a game-used bat or anything, but it's still cool. Maybe I'll end up doing it "overlay style" so I won't have to actually destroy the card.

Rod Beck PC additions! One of these days I want to add all my Rod Beck cards to the TCDB and see how far away I am from being his #1 collector on there. The Sports Illustrated card is the Extra Edition and numbered to 500 or something. The 2002 Topps card is a gold parallel #'d /2002. The die-cut is kinda neat. And as for the illustration.. full disclosure, it's not actually Rod Beck, but rather Mario. For whatever reason, I really wanted to snag a 1982 Topps Donkey Kong card (sticker) after seeing one on the blogs a while back, and went with this one. Whack!

Last thing for today-- a late addition to the post-- my boss just gifted me this Tony Gwynn figure for Christmas today. What a cool boss, right? This might be my first McFarlane's figure. While I generally tend to stay away from stuff like figures and bobbleheads, this is a big hit with me. My favorite player, plus he's in my favorite uniform (their white/brown/yellow/orange getup from the early 80s)!

Not exactly a spitting image in the face, but close enough. I'll likely keep this displayed at work.. Probably keep it in the package for now, but might bust it out of there at some point.

For my coworkers, I gave them little magnets of stuff they like (similar to the minis in rip-cards I sent to my trader buds a year or two back), with a cool nickname for our department on 'em (Data Force! lol). Like, one of my coworkers is a big Frank Zappa fan, so I made him a little Frank Zappa magnet. And my boss is a Batman nerd, so I made him a Batman one. They seemed to go over well. That was fun. Now I'm looking forward to a 5-day holiday weekend.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. I've gotten in a few nice trades and a contest-win that I need to post about ASAP. And I need to round up some prizes for a contest of my own on the horizon. So that'll keep me busy leading up to Christmas.

"Don't Cry" (Original) [Guns N' Randoms]

I wasn't exactly crying over this purchase, but this is an instance of where I was browsing eBay one night after a few drinks and ending up bidding on a card, and woke up to having won it. It's a fine looking Tony Gwynn card that I didn't have. 1992 Bowman is one of the more scarce mainstream sets from the overproduction era, adding some mystique to it. Still though, I didn't really need to go spending a few bucks on a graded copy when I would have been perfectly content with a raw copy from COMC for 42 cents. But oh well.

I had been wanting to score an auto to cap off my Gary Sheffield PC, and hey, a Padres auto popped up.. didn't think I'd ever see that, but that's a cool thing about buyback autos. Landed this one for a good price. I liked Gary as a kid in San Diego, and probably felt like crying when he got traded away to the Marlins. But it definitely worked out for the best, as we got Trevor Hoffman in return, who proceeded to have a Hall of Fame career as a dominant closer. Gary had himself a very fine career as well, but a reputation as an asshole and murmurs of admitted PED use tends to keep his name out of HOF discussion.

Back to the card, I always assumed Topps stamped the buybacks after they were signed, though here it definitely appears Gary signed on top of the stamp, so I guess not. But still, cool card for me.

Snagged another cheap Bill Madlock auto for the PC. It's from 2018 Archives. I finally got my pair of hobby boxes delivered today, so expect a recap of those soon. I might cry if I end up pulling this card as one of my four promised autos.

Here's one that I can't really think of working in the "crying" theme of the post.. I was just stoked to add an auto to my burgeoning Rhys Hoskins PC. Gotta love the Rated Rookie logo, though the uniform logos are missed. I think his signature looks great here.

I had been wanting a Yoenis Cespedes auto for a while. This one looked nice and was a good price with combined shipping from the same seller as the Rhys. 11/25 isn't nearly as cool as 12/25, but still much better than 13/25. Cespedes Family BBQ is one of the better baseball Twitter accounts out there, and perhaps their love for Yoenis rubbed off on me. Hopefully he has a full, healthy season sometime. Hard not to cry when he keeps ending up on the DL.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Live and Let Die

The Guns N' Roses song next up in my "Guns N' Randoms" series of posts named after their songs is "Live and Let Die" which is of course a cover of the classic Paul McCartney & Wings song that was the theme to the 1973 James Bond flick of the same name. Sometimes I use the title as a challenge to put together some cards under a theme, and this one features spies/intelligence operatives.

H. Jon Benjamin! I was very happy to see him pop up on the 2018 Ginter auto checklist, though I had some patience and didn't grab one right away. Recently snagged this one, and ponied up a little extra to get a Ginter X auto with the silver ink, and not only that, but the Christmas Card! His distinctive voice is best known today as superspy Archer and Bob from Bob's Burgers. I love those shows, but I've been a fan since his early days on Home Movies and Dr. Katz. Just a real funny dude.

I gotta admit I've never watched even 60 seconds of 24. But I've loved Mary Lynn Rajskub (pronounced "Rice Cub") for a long time for her comedy work. Mr. Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Always Sunny, Arrested Development, and much more. She was even on an episode of Home Movies, to tie it in with the H. Jon Benjamin auto. So it was cool to sang a certified auto of hers (Her signature looks like "PG" but still cool). Again, I really like the silver ink, though putting it on a grey background probably wasn't a great design choice, but I caught it in the light ok in this photo.

And hey, since it's a James Bond themed post, howabout the man called "Jaws" himself, the late, great Richard Kiel! I've got a MST3K dvd staring him signed by Joel. But it's cool to have the big man himself in my card collection now, picking up this Topps 75th Anniversary auto a while back.

Have a great week, everybody.

Dust N' Bones (Guns N' Randoms)

I'm not going to have a lot of blogging time for the next week or so. An issue at work delayed my production schedule for the month by a week, so I'm playing catch-up and won't have a lot of downtime to type up posts. Plus, much of the free time that I do have is spent working on my big List of Baseball Cards in Film and TV which is coming along wonderfully and is fun to research and I think will be a big hit, but takes a lot of time digging and building.

So for the time being here's a quick "Guns N ' Randoms" post where I just show off some random recent pickups. I also use a GNR song as a title since that saves me time trying to think up a clever title or way to tie the cards together. We're now up to "Dust N' Bones", a fine but largely forgettable track off Use Your Illusion I.

In cardboard terms, "dust" could be acetate cards.. you know, because you can see through them.. or something. So let's start off with a couple clear cards.

While I pretty much consider my Roberto Alomar PC "complete enough", one thing that bothered me is that of my 2 autos of his, one is a 1988 Topps Traded card which I mistakenly thought was a buyback auto, but turned out to be non "pack-certified" (my fault for not reading the description close enough). And the other Robbie auto I got is unlicensed, plus is a Toronto card. But now this certified, on-card, licensed, Padres card checks all the boxes for me and caps off the PC nicely.

I'm really hoping Francisco Mejia pans out for San Diego. He's got a lot of potential but needs to prove he can hit major league pitching. I recently kicked up my new PC of his with a 2018 Clearly Authentic auto in the style of 1993 Finest.

Here's the pair in the light.

The backs of these cards tend to look cool too. (Although the signature on the Mejia visible from the back is a bit unfortunate.. looks like somebody doodled him pooping. lol)

Now for the "bones" portion of the post. When I think of "bones" of a card, well, I guess I'd say printing plates, right? So here are a couple printing plates I've picked up recently.

Another card for the Padres section of my collection. Looks like Cal Quantrill is currently #10 on the list of San Diego's top prospects. He was a little shaky in AA earlier this year, but improved after getting promoted to AAA. Hope he has a good season next year and makes it up to Petco before long.

And a new addition to my Gavin LaValley supercollection. Actually, it's not all that super, as there are a ton of parallels I don't have for this card. But when a 1/1 shows up, I go after it.. and figure I'll worry about the less scarce cards down the line if I decide to rainbow the card.

Believe it or not, this is my 9th LaValley plate... but it's my first black plate for him, funny enough. Most of what I've got are yellows and magentas.

So anyways, there were a couple autos from 2018 Clearly Authentic and a couple plates from 2018 Bowman.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! Best of luck to those of you out East dealing with Florence.

Right Next Door to Hell

Man, I'm ready for these 90°+ days to end. Feels like we're living right next door to hell.

The Guns N' Randoms series continues as we now begin posts titled after Use Your Illusion songs, featuring random cards I've added to my collection recently.

The subtle marketing in play on this card gives me a hankering for a fast food burger, ain't gonna lie. Brian Graham is a Guy from Granite who never made the bigs that I just "discovered" earlier this year, and have been working to build a respectable PC.

Graham "Cracker".. fun nickname. I might go for the sentimental choice of "Moonlight" (but I suppose this was before Field of Dreams came out).

The '85 Huntsville Stars (AA) actually ended up having a bunch of major leaguers. Canseco is the big name, but you also got Stan Javier, Rob Nelson, Charlie O'Brien, Luis Polonia, Rick Rodriguez, Terry Steinbach, Brian Dorsett, Tim Belcher, Todd Burns, Greg Cadaret, and Eric Plunk among others.

Graham also went into coaching after his playing days were done.

Funny thing is Graham helmed the 1991 Kinston Indians, where he managed another Granite Hills High School grad Brian Giles. And then again with the 1992/93 Canton-Akron Indians, 1994 Charlotte Knights, and 1995/96 Buffalo Bisons. I'm pretty sure these are the only instances of a Guy From Granite managing another Guy From Granite on a professional level. So that's kinda neat.

The Guns N' Roses song "Right Next Door to Hell" is apparently about a shitty neighbor Axl had. I can definitely relate, as I've had more than my share of shitty neighbors. While I love my hometown, and like collecting cards of guys who went to my high school as a way to connect to my past, that doesn't mean the entire population are necessarily quality human beings.

I know my regular readers are sick of me writing about Brian Giles (even literally wearing his pants), but turns out casual readers who stumble upon my blog might not feel the same. I just got this LOL-worthy comment the other day on my old post talking about guys from my high school who played in the minors but never made the MLB...

Seems this fellow missed the part about the post being about guys who didn't make the majors. Yep, I published separate posts for Brian Giles, Marcus Giles, and Shane Spencer.. and have posted about each of them several times since. Kind of embarrassing to have this dumbass "defending" my hometown by being an all-caps asshole, but I guess his misguided heart is in the right place.

I wish I wouldn't get bent out of shape by one shitty comment when well over 99% of my blog's reader interaction is positive. But oh well.
Anyways..

Sean Ross is another guy from my high school. He's still in college (my alma mater SDSU). Got a rainbow in the works here with the /50, /25, and /10 versions of this Leaf Perfect Game card from a couple years ago.

Moving now onto Gavins, here're some Gavin Osteen cards I needed from 89-91.

Gavin Edmondson and Tom Gavin.

My Gavin Baugh PC gets closer to complete with the inaugural Marlins and Rockies parallels to 1993 Topps plus a couple minor league cards from his short pro career.

These facial hair all-stars are neither from my high school nor are named Gavin, but here's a Nate Colbert (I already had the sealed team set with this card, but nice to score a single), a Goose box bottom, and a couple oddballs of Mr. Blackwell.

Lastly, a 2011 Topps diamond Prince Fielder via a surprise PWE from gcrl, who also included a Padrograph for me to give to Rod next time I see him. Thanks, Jim! Slowly making progress on this epic project.

Thanks for swinging by.

One in a Million

Well, I had planned to publish a big, informative post with a bunch of card-shipping tips today to close out Blue Tape and Pull Tab Awareness Week, but I couldn't finish it in time and I want to make sure I don't rush it, so it'll have to wait till another day.

So here are some gif cards I made over the past week.

7/29
Remembering the legendary Tony Gwynn who was inducted into the Hall of Fame on this date in 2007. Great player and great guy. Miss you, Tony!

Ah, Tony. He was one in a million. Happy to put together a quick little "greatest hits" clip for him, though it kinda bothers me I wasn't able to get him actually hitting a ball into it. But the big laugh is priceless.

7/29

On this day in 1996, Chris Sabo shatters his bat, strewing cork onto the field. As a result of the incident, Sabo is ejected and gets a 7-game suspension. Sabo maintains that he never corked a bat in his life, claiming that the bat in question belonged to another player (whom he would not name). It was not his initial bat of the at-bat, breaking the first one, too.. so, maybe?

8/5
Wishing a Happy 50th Birthday to John Olerud. Excellent hitter and a class act. Couldn't help but root for the guy.


Wow, 50. I started collecting in 1990 and Olerud was just a kid. Kinda makes me feel old. Old and rude.

I thought a graded gif was kinda funny. The reason 1990 Donruss is a go-to for me is the photo area is a simple box (no logos or fancy design stuff getting in the way), so it makes it quick and easy to turn into an animated card.

8/4
The whole Robin Ventura vs. Nolan Ryan brawl is kinda worn out at this point, but it's the 25th anniversary, so I gave in and made a gif card.


Yeah, some twitter accounts I follow seem to harp on this moment a bit too much. (Looking at you, @Super70sSports) and so it's a little stale for me now. But yeah, old guy pwning the young punk makes for a good story.


(Update: I've just made what I feel is my best one of these yet and will be tweeting it out tomorrow morning. 8/6 around 8:15 Pacific: @breakdowncards be there. lol. But no, it's a good one! I predict it might even break my Satchel record for most popular tweet. But then again, sometimes things I think will be a huge hit end up falling flat, so who knows.)
(Update to the Update: yeah, it didn't exactly take off. Oh well, I'll tweet it out again on Clemente's birthday coming up in a couple weeks and I bet it'll have more success then.)

Let's squeeze in a real card in this post.

Checked Rickey off my Archives Reserve Master Set! I wish these 2001 Rookie Reprint inserts were refractors (like every other Archives Reserve card), but still cool.

This was the biggest name of the non-hit Reserve cards still on my wantlist. I was bummed I lost an auction for it a while back when it went a bit too high, but then ended up winning this one much cheaper, so it all worked out.

This post finishes off another GNR album's worth of random posts:
Reckless Life
Nice Boys
Move To The City
Mama Kin
Patience
Used To Love Her
You're Crazy
One In A Million

Have a great week, all. And remember:
You're one in a million
Yeah, that's what you are
You're one in a million, babe
You're a shooting star

You're Crazy (acoustic) to pass up a Tom Seaver 2nd-year card for $1.75

I recently won an auction for a Garry Templeton auto I had been searching for, then checked out the seller's other auctions. Ended up with some good stuff, including this slabbed 1968 Topps Tom Seaver for just $1.25 plus 50 cents additional shipping. Even in rough shape, you're crazy if you pass that up!

The back is decent too. Super cool to pick up the first solo card of an all-time great for less than the price of a Starbucks. I recently "retired" my Tom Terrific PC into the Hundred Card Club, but still had to jump on that deal.

Here's another legend I picked up cheap. This '64 Frank Robinson was mine for under $3 plus combined shipping. A little off-center, but otherwise pristine!

Happy to check another A-lister off my 1964 Topps setbuild. (Though at that price, I'd probably have picked it up ever if I weren't working on the set.)

How about another vintage first-ballot HOFer? This '57 Al Kaline wasn't quite the steal as the above 2 cards, but still a solid deal.

It's a beaut, and checks another big name off my 1957 Topps set.

Last one for today is another need for my '57 setbuild. While he doesn't have a plaque in the Hall, Don Larsen is a household name to even casual baseball fans thanks to his incredible World Series heroics in 1956.

Seeing as this is the first card to come out since his legendary performance, it's no surprise the write-up on the back focuses on the perfect game... as would pretty much every card he ever got from that point on. But I suppose you're crazy if you ignore it.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody!