Stacking Plates

I've scored myself 3 printing plates in the past few months and I figured I'd round them up into a post.

Here's big Dave Winfield bursting out of the batter's box. I'm always keeping an eye on active Topps Retired auctions, mainly searching for 'dem sweet /25 refractor autos, but sometimes I stumble upon other cool stuff, such as a reasonably priced printing plate of one of my main PC guys.

A cyan plate of a Blue Jays card counts as a color match, don't it?

Well, howbout a magenta plate of a Cardinals card?

Khalil Greene played during years I wasn't collecting cards, but I specifically recall thinking to myself that he's a guy I'd be all over if I were collecting at the time. An interesting young kid on the Padres who came up big occasionally but ultimately never quite fulfilled his promise of being a good MLBer. After I got back into collecting a few years later, I started putting together a respectable PC of his cards, helping remind me of that era of Padres baseball, as well as my "lost years" out of the hobby.

2009 Topps is Khalil's sunset card. The Padres had just traded him away to St. Louis, though the change of scenery sadly didn't help his numbers. That was his last season in baseball despite an impressive spring training with his new club, to the point where he was batting clean-up on Opening Day behind Albert Pujols, but Khalil's problem seems to be that he put too much pressure on himself and couldn't turn the page, to the point of self-harm. Perhaps if he was coming up today, there would be more mental health assistance available and his career might've turned out differently.

Last guy for today is another Padres fan favorite..

After a long wait, I finally scored another Bip Roberts autographed plate! Yep, 2014 Topps Archives included Bip in their Fan Favorites Autographs checklist. Giddy with this development, I smashed buy-it-now on a base auto on the product release day and I've been building the rainbow ever since.

Back in June 2014, I traded with former blogger ARPSmith for the magenta plate that he pulled. A few months later in November 2014, I scored the yellow plate on eBay. Then a decade went by with no progress until the cyan plate popped up just last November. Now there's just the black plate left to try tracking down.

Turns out there also a 1/1 red parallel (non-plate) that I also need to complete the rainbow. And dang it, I haven't been keeping an eye out for that, so it's probably too late by this point. But whatever, I'm more interested in the printing plate quadfecta.

The following year, 2015, Topps put Bip into Stadium Club (with the sombrero, but no autos). Those are the only two instances to date of Topps showing the Bipper any post-career love. But I guess I shouldn't complain, because if they put out more Bip autos I'd probably have to buy them all. lol

Anybody know what Bip is up to these days, by the way? Last I heard he was a part of the extended broadcast team in Oakland, but that was a while ago, and now Oakland doesn't even have a team anymore.

Speaking of Bip, I skimmed a recent Pitchfork article about how "Bip" is a hip slang word on the rise. The writer failed to mention Mr. Roberts nor bipping as "surprising someone with several copies of the same trading card", as we on the cardsphere know it, but rather among several possibilities, could mean "conducting illicit transactions, driving around smoothly while conducting those illicit transactions, or just masterfully driving in general. [...] In its other, more benign definitions, getting “bipped up” means you’ve gotten a fresh haircut or hairstyle."

Safe bippin' out there, y'all!

I wanna be your backdoor man

I'm back with some more "backdoored" stuff for my collection purchased from a certain eBay seller with a large selection of internal proof cards and whatnot that were never intended to make it out into the world.

These Ring Leaders inserts from 1995 Topps Stadium Club are ostentatious enough as they are-- but a slightly oversized proof?! Even more intense! I wanna make this image my desktop background. Looks even better in hand, all nice n' shiny.

For comparison, here's the packed-out version. You can see the edges have been trimmed off of the original artwork. The proof has more of the eagle wing and a bit of Crime Dog's shoe.

I also got a similar Gwynn, but this one has a color bar attached to it too. The googly-eyed Bip is there for scale (and comic relief). These are both blank-backed, btw.

My way of thinking is if you're gonna do the oversized card thing, make it a shiny card. The more shiny, the better.. right? These Power Players inserts from 2000 Topps are pretty cool looking.. and the untrimmed proofs add a little more to the story. These have standard backs. The Nomar was picked up as trade bait, so if any of my Sox-collecting trade buddies want me to set it aside for you, just let me know.

The 2009 Bowman red parallel is an unnumbered proof (regular size). The packed-out versions of this parallel are 1/1. Just a neat little addition for my Xavier Nady PC.

Basketball even got into the action, picking up a pair of shiny untrimmed Tim Duncan proofs. These look great.

Foil-less, untrimmed proofs of Dwight Evans (1992 Stadium Club) and Eric Owens (1996 Topps Gallery).

Some Fleer stuff too. More slightly oversized proofs. 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings Gavin Floyd, Khalil Greene, Brian Giles, and Adrian Beltre.

Some of the big names are priced a bit steep-- occasionally outrageous even-- but Bagwell and Thome here were just a buck each, so I added them to my cart, spicing up those little PCs with an out-of-the-ordinary item. Most of the cards in this post were a buck or two. The Gwynn Ring Leader was the priciest card at $3.

The Hoyt is a blank-back of his 1991 Archives card, a 1953 Topps reprint. Not very exciting, but happy to add another Hoyt to the collection as I work toward my goal of 100 different cards. And yes, I definitely count these backdoored cards in my PC totals, though some collectors may choose not to. Cards like this obviously aren't listed in Beckett or TCDB or whatnot, but I just consider them bonus oddballs. Maybe a step above customs and unofficial sketch cards.

Rod Beck was the star of the order with 8 different cards. As for the two cards that look like dupes, one is blank-backed and the other has a standard back. The 1995 Topps Finest refractor (bottom right) isn't a proof or anything.. just a regular card the seller had that was a good price and I needed it, so I threw it in the cart. It is possibly a backdoored card, but no real way to tell the difference with a packed-out version in this instance, I guess.

Let's close out with a Bip Roberts lot, another of my favorite under-the-radar guys to collect.

Here are the backs. Again, just some quirky PC additions.

Typically, I'm not a fan of oversized cards as they're more of a pain to store, but these cards that are only slightly oversized are still small enough to fit in boxes with the rest of my cards, so it's not too bad. I might just have to put them in team bags instead of penny sleeves.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

I bought game-used pants! And made relic cards with them!

I read a Raz post a while back where he mentioned buying game-used pants of a guy he collects and I half-jokingly made a comment suggesting he should cut them up and make custom relic cards. And that planted the seed that I should do just that! I looked around eBay for game-worn pants of somebody I collect (gotta assume pants are cheaper than jersey tops since they don't display as well; It's not like something you'd frame on your wall). I found a listing for Brian Giles pants that wasn't too outrageously priced, made an offer I was comfortable with, and it was accepted. As a guy who went to my high school (and worked there when I attended), plus later played several years for my hometown Padres, Giles was a great choice for me to feature in a bunch of customs.

While the pants didn't come with any fancy authentication hologram sticker or anything, I gotta think someone would be crazy to go through the trouble of making fake Brian Giles pants with this much care and detail. A player like Jeter or Trout, maybe. But other than an all-time great like that, just doesn't seem like it'd be worth it to a would-be bootlegging seamstress to make. So I'm convinced they're legit.

The listing said they were used in a game while Brian was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2000, but that was the extent of the information provided; no exact date or anything. They don't seem to have any stains, so it's safe to say he didn't steal a base (only 6 on the year) or make any sliding catches in the outfield this day. But the pants have pinstripes, so that's definitely a big plus as far as making interesting memorabilia cards.

The 2000 season was a good one for Brian, though. He made the All-Star team for the first time, set what would stand as his career-high in RBI, and even got some MVP consideration.

Readers with good memories might recall my post several weeks back where I mentioned I was writing the post while wearing Brian Giles' pants. Yeah, I just wanted to get the feel of them, plus then I could truthfully make the claim that they were "blog-used" at any point down the line if I felt like getting silly with it. Yep, I wore the pants for an hour or so and loved it. I could definitely see considering them regular lounge pants for lazy weekends and whatnot. Almost hated having to cut them up for cards.

But cut them I did. I even worked out a deal with noted Pirates collector and fellow physical customs maker Mark at Battlin' Bucs where I sold him one of the legs to recoup some of my purchase price. That allowed plenty of material for us both to play with.

And now I'm going to show off some of the cards I've made so far. With the exception of rough, tongue-in-cheek "blog-used button" cards I made for some of my trading buddies a couple years ago with an old shirt of mine, I had never attempted to make my own custom relic cards. I'm still in the learning curve, figuring out the best way to go about it all with some trial and error. So while I may feel good about most of the customs I crank out these days, custom relic cards are a whole new ballgame and you'll have to be forgiving if these aren't quite up to the standards you'd expect from real memorabilia cards from Topps, Panini, or Upper Deck. Also, while I'd like to think I'm pretty good at making customs using classic designs, I admit coming up with original card designs of my own has never been my strong suit. So I usually just keep it simple.

Here's the first card I came up with. Good run-of-the-mill relic card, I'd say. The uniform he's wearing in the photo matches the swatch.. Always a plus. The photo is from 2000, so who knows, there's a chance they might actually be the same pants from the photo.

Now, I didn't want to just make a ton of Pirates relic cards, so I took the liberty of stretching the pants into other settings. Hey, real card companies are known to use a photo from one team with memorabilia that player used while with another team.. so if they can do it, I figure so can I!

This card goes back to Brian's early days making a name for himself in Cleveland. I gave one of these to TSHenson the other day, the only Indians collector I've traded with lately. I should note the back clarifies the material is from his Pirates days.

And of course I couldn't leave out my Padres. Cool shot of Brian returning to the dugout after some run-production.

When I found this double play photo from '97, I thought it'd be fun to psych out my Yankees-collecting trade buddies with what would at first seem to be a Jeter relic. But the back of the card makes it clear it's from Giles' trousers, not Jeets' jeans, and mentions the 1997 season when Brian's Indians bested Derek's Yanks for the AL pennant. (Brian had a robust OPS of 1.500 in a losing cause to the Marlins in the World Series that year, BTW.)

Here's another team-up card. As I mentioned in my last post, Khalil Greene is one of my favorite somewhat obscure guys to collect, so I was happy for the chance to manufacture a new hit to squeeze into that PC, even if it's essentially just a cameo appearance.

Ok, here's a fun one. This "zero year" card commemorates the brief time Brian spent in the Dodgers organization at the end of his career. He signed with LA in 2010, but ended up retiring early in spring training due to a bum knee. I found this cool posed photo that was perfect for a relic card. I tried something new by making the window a circle instead of a box, but I don't have a big hole punch so I had to do it by hand with a blade tracing a jigger and couldn't get a perfect circle. Whatever; good enough. You're probably saying, "Hey DefGav, that's clearly a plain white swatch, not matching the pants! What the heck?!" Well, first of all, it's "defgav" (no capitalization), and secondly, yeah, I thought the grey with a black stripe would look too jarring on a Dodgers card. But I assure you the material is indeed from the pants in question. Take a guess.

Give up? If you guessed it's from a pocket, you got it. Yes, game-used pocket! I'm glad I could work up a custom relic to give to my Dodger-collecting buddies. And it's nice to have a copy in my collection too, since as far as I know, Brian never got a real card from his brief tenure bleeding Dodger blue.

Coincidentally, Brian's younger brother Marcus Giles also was technically in the Dodgers organization for a hot minute but never played an official game with them.

And you know I've got to work Marcus into one of my custom relic cards, since he's another guy I collect, went to school with him, etc. Spiced things up with a horizontal stripe here in this prototype. This "memorBRObilia" card features a nice photo that commemorates the glorious homecoming reunion of the brothers in 2007. Marcus had a down year and was out of MLB after that, which is too bad, but still a sweet story of brothers playing together for their hometown team.

That's all I've whipped up at the moment. The plan is to make a few copies of each design: one for me, and probably like 3 or 4 more to throw in with trades. I've still got about half of the pants left-- a ton of material left to play with-- so I'll likely come up with more designs in the future. And once I feel comfortable making relic cards that I'm happy with, quality-wise, I'll tackle making fancy cards, like with the buttons and tags. But no rush there.

Any feedback on my attempts at making custom relics? Let me know what you think!

Trades, wins, and gifs

Like a zombie's hand reaching out of the grave, Bob Walk The Plank may be dead, but Matthew Scott is still making his presence felt in the cardsphere.

Khalil Greene is one of my favorite under-the-radar PCs, and this shiny die-cut 2004 Donruss Elite card #'d 3/10 is a sweet addition.

And cool to add a 1/1 Padres card in the form of this 2003 Hawaii Trade Conference stamped Ramón Vázquez. Gotta admit I don't have much recollection of the guy, but he did stick around for 9 years playing for 6 different teams, seeing his most action in San Diego during '02 and '03.

Joe Ross is a guy I kinda/sorta collect, so that's a nice one, too. It's a 1st Day Proof parallel #'d 8/10 on the back. Joe went to the Nationals in the big Wil Myers/Trea Turner 3-way trade, and is out all of 2018 due to Tommy John surgery. Hopefully he can bounce back next season and get his career back on track.

Wow, a couple new one-touch cases.. that's something I can't recall receiving in trade before (though Billy has sent me used one-touches in the past). I'll definitely put these to good use.

Big thanks, Matt! A return from me should be showing up any day now.

-  - - --o

Next up is a win from Wes. He's been running a string of contests at his Area 40 blog, and I was lucky enough to come up on the randomizer recently for a graded basketball card that was in the pot.

I think this is my first-ever 1986 Fleer Basketball card, which is pretty cool. Of course the Michael Jordan card is the one everybody wants from that set. Drew played in the NBA for a decade and then went into coaching. He was part of the Cav's organization when they won it all in 2016.

Thanks for the generosity, Wes!

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Among other incoming cards over the past week was a little one-card trade with a reader named James H. who knocked Matt Williams off my 1987 Fleer Update needs (now down to just Burks, Steve Carlton, Cecil Fielder, and Minton).

Also got a nice box of cards from an in-person swap with Kerry featuring my haul from his big 10th Anniversary Free Group Break plus more, but I think that's gonna have to get its own post at a later date because there's a ton of good stuff in there I still need to sort through.

-  - - ---o

If you follow me on Twitter [ @breakdowncards ], you know I've been going strong cranking out more gif cards, typically tied in with some "this day in baseball" history. If you're not on Twitter, well, allow me to round up these recent animated tweets for you now. (I also like posting them to my blog as like a backup and so I can easily find them later.)

7/16: Hey, we all embarrass ourselves at work from time to time. On this day in 1990, Steve "Psycho" Lyons absentmindedly dropped trou in front of 14,770 fans at Tiger Stadium to brush away dirt after diving into first to beat out a bunt.

7/21: Remembering Dave Henderson on what would have been his 60th birthday. Likely would've been '86 WS MVP if not for Buckner's blunder. Got redemption in '89 with A's. Always had a big smile and loved playing the game. R.I.P. Hendu.

7/22: On this day in 1989, Carl Yastrzemski is inducted into the Hall of Fame at ceremonies in Cooperstown, NY. An 18-time All-Star, Yaz was the last man to win a Triple Crown in the 20th Century, and the only AL batter to hit .300 in the "year of the pitcher" 1968.

[This tweet was the most popular of the ones in this post, racking up many likes and retweets. It also has a typo, as I bungled Yaz's last name on the card, making me feel quite the fool. Luckily, I think the majority of folks never noticed. But I'll have to redo it someday, taking out that extra E in the middle.]

7/23: On this day in 2009, Mark Buehrle of the White Sox pitches the 18th perfect game in major league history, shutting down the Rays, 5-0.

7/23: And if you're talking about Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009, you gotta give credit to Dewayne Wise for keeping it alive with an incredible catch for the 1st out of the 9th inning, robbing Gabe Kapler of a home run.

[Coincidentally a lot of Red/White Sox among this batch.]

7/24: George Brett's infamous "Pine Tar Game" at Yankee Stadium happened on this day back in 1983. After a go-ahead home run off Goose with 2 outs in the 9th, the umps call Brett out for too much pine tar on his bat, giving NY the win. The AL prez overrules and Royals eventually win.


That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Reckless Life (Guns N' Randoms)

I'm back at it for another group of random cards. The "Guns N' Randoms" series continues, starting now on the Lies album (or if you want to nerd-out over it, it's actually called G N' R Lies, and the first half of it is actually a live EP called Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide.. which isn't actually live, but rather studio recordings with crowd noise added to them to make it seem live, because that was something bands sometimes did in the late 80s for some reason.)

Anyways, the first track is "Reckless Life" and so here are some recent pickups, roughly grouped together under the theme of recklessness.

Bake McBride might have been a little reckless on the field, leading to ankle and knee injuries that put a damper on his career. Happy to snag some oddballs for my little Shake n' Bake PC.

Here are the backs.

I also grabbed this trio from his Senior League days. Who knew they did an update/high-number series, getting him another card in the set with his new team.

Here are the backs. I love the Senior League stats! Makes me curious who the league-leaders were, though unfortunately I haven't been able to find any stats from the short-lived league online anywhere.

And here are a couple minor league cards from Khalil Greene. Weird to see the Padres fan-favorite in a Cardinals uniform near the end of his career. Poor kid displayed reckless behavior at times due to mental issues he struggled with.

Wally Backman isn't really reckless. Perhaps reckless on the basepaths? I've been wanting to get some Wally Backman representation in my collection, and this minor league card seemed like a cool option. You probably know I collect guys who went to my high school? Well, Wally Backman is the most notable player who went to my wife's high school. So I thought I might kinda collect him a little too as a nod to her. Eric Gunderson (pitcher in the 90s) seems to be the only other guy from her school to make the majors.

Threw this early Bartolo Colon into my cart in a recent online order. Big Sexy reckless? Hmm.. maybe his eating habits? And there's his shady choices regarding PED usage and personal life improprieties. But he largely gets a pass from fans for that because he's got that "everyman" thing like hey, maybe an old, fat guy like myself could theoretically play baseball if he can! Plus he's the Last of the Expos.. which makes you want to root for him to play forever.

Let's wrap up this post with the Rebel Without a Cause himself, James Dean. Grabbed this for my "We Didn't Start The Fire" Binder.

Thanks for stopping by.

late night trade recap

Wrapping up another successful awareness week. Thanks to all of you who helped support the use of blue tape and pull tabs. Ours is a noble and just cause.

Let's crank out a trade recap post. First up is Night Owl. We've been trading back and forth for a while, and honestly I've forgotten when I get cards from him if he's getting me back for the last batch of cards I sent him, or starting a new cycle. But no matter, I'm happy to keep things going.

A couple sweet relics of Padres I collect. I assume that red Klesko warm-up jersey swatch must be from his time on the Braves, right? (edit: whoops, I missed the All-Star stuff. It's most likely from his All-Star Game warm-up jersey, as Night Owl pointed out in the comments.) That Khalil Greene might feature the tiniest bat chip I've ever seen in a card, but I'm still happy to add it to the PC.

Some Padre cards with foil stamps. I remember posting a comment on Greg's terrific blog offering to give the Gwynn a good home a while back, and here he is!

A few days ago, I posted a plea for traders to please stop sending me Wil Myers cards, but this package was already in the capable hands of the USPS by then, so he gets a pass.

"Knoxville! Knoxville! Knoxville!" I wanted that Sunsphere card because of the classic Simpsons episode where Bart and his buds take a road trip to visit it, years after the World's Fair. Also here are a couple Confortos I needed, plus a 2011 parallel.

A bunch more current guys I collect, mostly from 2017 Opening Day.

Beltre! I saw that faux Wheaties box card on Oscar's blog a few days ago and thought it was pretty cool, so I was very happy to find it among the stack.

1984 Fleer! I've got this set on my "maybe someday" list, and this is a nice starter lot for if/when I get serious about it. I believe Greg is also working on the set, so these must be some dupes he had available.

And finally a couple glowing cards.
See?....

Thanks, Greg! Very appreciated. I'll round up some cards for you soon.

Oh, since we're closing up Blue Tape & Pull-Tab Awareness Week, I guess we should take a look at his packaging:

The ol' team bag with a piece of blue tape over it. Billy from Cardboard History mentioned in the comments that folks taping a team bag is a big pet peeve of his (specifically when it's a new team bag with the adhesive strip that still has the covering over it). But I get it; sometimes, especially with a team bag that's already been used a few times, it's hard to trust that the sticky part will hold. So yeah, I give N.O. a thumbs-up here.

-  - -- - ---o

Next up is a trade with a new Twitter bud, @DJSeneseiNJ. I tweeted out my needs from Star Wars 40 and while I got some likes and retweets, he was the only person to answer the call and knock some numbers off my list.

He found a nice baker's dozen of needs for me, taking me to 17 left to complete the 200-card set.

[My current 2017 Topps Star Wars 40th Anniversary needs: 8, 15, 23, 29, 37, 42, 46, 49, 57, 58, 69, 80, 90, 108, 157, 180, 190]

Thanks, man!

He sent the cards in a little ziplock bag (from 100-count penny sleeve pack, perhaps?) with a blank card for protection and a piece of tape to keep it tight. No pull-tab, but I'll still give him an A- here.

- - - ----o

Finally, here's a surprise PWE from Kin of I Feel Like A Collector Again.

Card Saver in a PWE. Fine choice when you're just sending a card or two. Score; uncanceled 1¢ stamp! A "please don't bend" plea might not actually do a whole lot, but I guess it doesn't hurt. What kind of creeps me out is how did he know the extra 4 digits of my zip. Hell, *I* don't even know those extra 4 digits! LOL

It's a cool Chris Sale parallel and a blank little card that I didn't even notice at first.. Pleasantly surprised to discover it's another 2017 A&G Constellation mini!

Very nice!

And a glowing pic. I've now got 3 of the 10 of these things. Not bad. My 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter "Constellations" glow-in-the-dark mini inserts needs: C-1, C-2, C-3, C-6, C-7, C-8, C-10

Thanks, Kin! I'll find something to return the favor soon.

Thanks again to these kind traders, and to you for reading, and everyone who does their best to package cards is a courteous way!