Some cards I've been meaning to post

With this pair of notable former Dodgers, my 2004 Chrome Black setbuild is down to just 20 cards remaining.

My longterm dream of putting together a run of Topps playing days Mantles sorta faded away with the covid boom, so now I'm pivoting to a frankenset of vintage and refractor reprints filling in the gaps where I don't have the original. Hopefully I finish that someday and get a blog post out of it. After these shiny revisions from '96, my current needs are 1952, 1953, 1956, 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1967.

Baby Dave Winfield. The '73 is a WTHB custom.

1970 Topps is probably the vintage design that benefits the most from refractorification.

Turns out Mr. Show is in my baseball card collection.

My ARMS is on the cusp of 75% complete, with 122 cards remaining.

A couple recent Topps Retired auto pickups.

I also got a Parker Posey autograph.

I know I just showed that Jim Abbott, but turns out it completed the 2-card Angels team set for me, meaning I've got an excuse to show off the Nolan Ryan I bought in Hawaii years ago.

Bob at Best Bubble has been generous with me lately, first was a package with a couple Gavins and a couple girls..

..and a bunch of 1992 Leaf black gold. Some big name, too! And then more recently, a ton more of these showed up from him in a pair of flat-rate boxes.. and when the dust settled, I'm left with just 21 missing cards to finish the parallel set. Nice!

Also a new Gavin for my collection-- I believe the first basketballing Gavin I've got-- plus some PC guys and many duplicate "bubble" cards from Bob's collection, some of which I plan to do crafty cardart stuff to and then send back to Bob.

Plus a stack of Glow Stars and several more gals.

Big thanks, Bob! Much appreciated.

That'll do it for today. Thanks for reading. Sorry I haven't posted for about a month, but I should be back with more cards to show off soon. (Padrographs Rod dropped off a few hundred various cards this past weekend that I'm excited to check out.)

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #9 Mickey Mantle (time capsule post from 2020)

(This is a post I originally drafted back in mid 2000, I think, and for the sake of doing something different, thought I'd make it a "time capsule post" by scheduling it to be posted well in the future. So here it is, a year and a half later, the long-awaited return of this "ignorable filler post" series. LOL)

Mickey Mantle is #9 in this oddball set.

The action pic doesn't look much like him, but the headshot is a decent likeness. Maybe a little Edward Norton in there.

Always love the creepy doodles on the back. I didn't realize he was a high school football star, but it's no surprise.

- "Mickey says: 'Work hard, play harder.'"
Mickey later disavowed his hard partying, blaming alcoholism for relationship issues and health problems that caught up to him in retirement.

- "Mickey holds the World Series record with 18 home runs"
Many old school postseason career records have fallen thanks to more rounds in the expanded playoffs these days, but this World Series record is still intact and no active player is anywhere close. Chase Utley with 7 is the closest anyone's gotten in recent decades. Mickey's other standing WS records include most walks (43), extra base hits (26), RBI (40), and runs scored (42).

- "Mickey started out as a shortstop"
He played in 7 MLB games at short (just 1 start, in 1954). As far as other infield action, he also got into one game each at 2nd base (1 inning, also in '54) and 3rd base (4 innings in 1952). But otherwise he patrolled the outfield most of his career (mostly in center), then 1st base for his last couple seasons.

- "Mickey, in the minors, once played in the same outfield with his two brothers"
I wasn't able to find much more about this tidbit, but there were 3 Mantles who played for the 1954 McAlester Rockets: Maxie Mantle, Ray Mantle, and Roy Mantle. No Mickey, though.

As for me, he was before my time, but Mickey Mantle was a mythic figure when I was a kid. He was the favorite player of my best friend Doug's dad, which helped build up the legend for me even more. I know describing feelings is tough, but man, Mickey had a special feeling.

Once I got back into card collecting as an adult, scoring myself a vintage Mantle was a top priority. My first "big" card purchase (3 digits) was a sharp '64 Topps Mantle. Then I followed that up with a fuzzy corner '65 and a beat-up '57 (still my oldest card of his) and then a '68, and then a '69 (as part of a '69 Topps lot). More recently I picked up a slabbed '63 Topps Mantle at a card show last year. I'd love to one day complete a Topps base card run for him, but of course that '52 throws a wrinkle. And his '53 Topps is pretty tough too. (No '54 or '55 Topps card released.) And I hate his '56 Topps card (I think he looks like a creepy ventriloquist dummy on it). But a 1957-1969 run is a realistic goal for me. I used to try to land one need per year, but got a little relaxed in that pursuit lately. Bored "Covid Collectors" (investors) got prices running a bit high these days, but I'll eventually add another vintage Mantle along my quest.

But the pride and joy of my Mickey Mantle collection is this Score certified autograph I picked up a year ago. Love it!

(This whole post was drafted up earlier this month, but waited on taking this photo here later in August 2020 to be published.)

Now's the time of the ignorable post when I drunkenly ramble on about stupid shit.

Cute pix aside, I hate my dog. Looking to trade her for any 1990 Donruss needs. (nah, she's fine.)

Back to the Beach is one of my favorite summertime flicks. It's cheesy as hell, but I love it so. The random Pee-Wee scene is the cherry on top.

Look at this tough antifa motherfu*ker!
Nah, it's just me! :)
I forgot my mask when I got dropped off at work. Luckily I had a spare pair of (clean) underwear in my desk that worked as a mask in a pinch on my ride on public transportation on my way home.

You might be saying to yourself, wow you must shit yourself a lot to have backup underwear on hand, but no, the thing is in the winter I often wear long underwear ("lounge pants"), so the back up briefs are just in case I need to change into something for my workout shorts. Sigh.. I miss my 2:30 workouts, catching Pardon The Interruption in the work gym. Haven't "worked out" in months, though keeping active with bike rides (to the post office for work) and often running around dealing with this shitty dog.

But I have some good updates for you!

My old buddy who was probably moving up to Portland? (ref)

Yes, he did move up to my current home of Portland!

My attempt to get my 1991 MusiCard blog included on the popular sports card blogroll? (ref)

Yes, he did finally add my blog to the popular blogroll!

My attempt to get Johngy to comment on my blog? (ref)

Yes, he did comment on my blog!

So there are 3 nice "wins" for me to revel in. I should have done a giveaway contest to celebrate, but I've just been so busy/stressed lately that I don't want to take on too much. (Missed celebrating my blogoversarvy this year too.) Seriously, don't be surprised if I get struck down by a heart attack or something one of these days. Hopefully my wife will be able to pass on the news to my cardboard homies. I don't want to create any mystery about it if it happens. But if I don't post for a month, assume I'm dead. I would never go a month without a post. Never!

But no, I'm just being a diva, don't listen to me. I even have to make my favorite movies more stressful than they need to be.

Thanks to @Extension765 and @disnalldat, I now have a thing I do where I give my favorite movies a "remix" when I watch by playing them in black & white with only audio from Trent Reznor scores. It's weird and I kinda love it. pic.twitter.com/eqTJZvUhso

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) August 3, 2020

#Goonies

This dog is a lot of work.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. UPDATE: I put another Ruby pic at the top on today, 9/25/2020, because I was sick of looking at that poor artistic rendering of Mickey Mantle as the thumbnail picture for this draft at the top of my Blogger post list because this post is scheduled for many months from now, so it's gonna be there a long time. So I'd rather it be a cute pup to look at. Maybe I'm tough on Ruby, but she is getting better and I bet by the time this post is eventually published I will think she's a good girl and love her a bunch. But we'll see. Hello from 2020.

12/31/2021 UPDATE: Yeah, Ruby is still more "!!!" than I'm looking for in a dog, ideally, but we love the cute shit-for-brains pit-wolf.

On high alert for scraps at my birthday/Christmas Eve dinner. (Great cut of beef this year.)

In other animal news, after closing for the summer, my hummingbird hangout is back open for business now that the temperatures have dropped.

Drink up, little guy!

The googly-eyed Bip featured earlier in the post has since been turned into a fridge magnet. It's fun.

I've still got this jumbo refractor on the wall and it always makes me smile when I notice it.

That's it for this post. While I'd like to eventually cover all 16 cards in the crazy little set, it's anyone's guess if/when the next in the ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams series ever comes out, but stay tuned! Or don't! LOL

cardboard concentration

I don't get bored very often. Despite being home most of the time for the past couple weeks, still feels like I have dozens of little projects I want to get to one of these days. If I ever get to the point where I run out of things to do, then I might start getting worried-- but I doubt I'll ever get to that point. Always more cards to sort.. customs to make.. trade packages to put together.. and that's just talking about card stuff! Other around-the-house stuff to do too.

And I'd love to post more, both here and at my MusiCards blog. How is it I seem to have more free time to post while at work than when I'm working from home?! LOL, don't make no sense.

I'm also behind in reading the card blogs. I still haven't gotten to the wave of '88 Score Phil Niekro posts.. but almost there. Should be fun reading through all those.

But anyways, I received cards from a couple folks this week, so that's good motivation to squeeze out a quick post.

Johnny Miller has been doing some fun giveaway games lately. I got in on one of them and ended up with this well-loved vintage Mickey Mantle checklist from 1967. This'll be a sweet addition to my Mantle PC.

John also included this 1980 Kellogg's Bruce Bochte. Another project on my long to-do list is to sort all my Kellogg's cards and finally put up wantlists for them. The long-term goal is to complete every Kellogg's set from 1970-1983, but I'm sure that'll be tough and take several years. Hey, no rush. Not sure where I'm at now, but doubt I'm anywhere near even halfway with any of these sets.

Thanks a lot, John! Your generosity is appreciated! I've got some cards set aside for you I'll try to drop in the mail one of these days.

-  - ----o

The other cardsphere mailing I received this week is from Nate at The Bucs Stop Here. He put together a great package of cards for me with guys I collect.

Impressive Kris Bryant lot right here. The holiday card is one of the metallic snowflake parallels.

Kris' teammate Javier Baez was along for the ride as well.

Young Dodger studs represented here with Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux.

Woo! A pair of Vlad Jr RCs. You know I'm a sucker for hyped-up rookies. I was really looking forward to seeing how his 2020 season shaped up.. but it'll have to wait.

More good stuff. Vogelmonster gold #'d 0057/2020. Early Didi. Tim Duncan refractor. Bol Bol RC.
Not sure if you saw my tweet from a few days ago, but I recently sorted my little basketball card collection. Tim Duncan was the largest PC by a comfortable margin, which I guess isn't a big surprise. I've gotten a lot of help from friendly traders.

Let's end on a hit. Nate hooked me up with this Joe Musgrove RC auto. I already had the base auto, but this badboy is the refractor parallel, #'d /499. Musgrove is from my hometown, so there's a little personal connection for me there.

Thank you for the excellent trade, Nate! I'm sorry my Pirates selection is a little thin at the moment. I'll keep an eye out for more Buccos and hope to balance the scales next time we swap cards.

My wife and I made up a "seclusion safari" game where we earn points by spotting cute animals from our windows. She's been kicking my ass so far. But it's just something fun to do while stuck at home. Always brightens our day when the backyard is visited by a local bunny. Funny how much entertainment value we get from watching the adorable little guy nibble on the lawn.

Guess that's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

got a Mickey Mantle autograph!

Regular readers of the blog might know that the past few Christmases I've asked for high-end boxes of cards for Christmas from my mom and mother-in-law, who are both nice enough to throw some real money at my silly hobby despite their better judgement. Ripping results have been mixed over the years, with some duds but also some nice Trouts.

This year, I'm a little tired of Topps and the state of modern cards in general, so I decided to keep cards off my Christmas/Birthday wishlist. My mom gave me a fat check, and although I technically made the purchase before the check was deposited, in my mind I'm considering the card a gift from her, putting the majority of the check towards a "dream card" for me. A 1992 Score card, if you can believe it.

.... (ka-BOOM!).

Oh man, I love this card.

MICKEY MANTLE AUTOGRAPH!

In the past few months, I decided I wanted to try targeting a Mantle auto one of these days, and started keeping an eye out. As far as pack-certified, on-card autos from the time before The Mick passed, the two best options available are the 1994 Upper Deck painted card he shares with Ken Griffey Jr, or his insert in '92 Score. Seeing as I've never been a huge fan of mass-produced art cards (that Mantle/Griffey included, sorry), I gravitated towards '92 Score. And well, this one had its BIN price creeping down over the past few weeks. Add an eBay Bucks offer to take some more sting out of it, and I ended up pulling the trigger.

In watching such cards over the past few months, I noticed many of these '92 Score Mantles feature a signature that is very faded. Gotta assume it's due to the ink being susceptible to fading in sunlight and the fact that many owners of these cards proudly displayed them for all to see, which eventually caused the signature to fade over the years.

But this one still looks good! I'll have to resist the urge to display it, at least anywhere bright, so it'll maintain the bold, blue signature from Mickey, deftly placed in a lighter area of the photo to help it pop.

Numbered 1859 of 2000 personally autographed cards. I didn't have much luck attaching an "eBay 1/1" meaning to this particular number, but the best I can do is that the year 1859 saw the first intercollegiate baseball game ever played. Oh wait-- here's one: old-time baseball HOFer Mickey Welch was born in 1859. Mickey W. was a New Yorker.. so that's kind of fitting. (Of course Mantle was named after Mickey Cochrane, not Welch, which would have been cooler, but still.) Yes, it's the Mickey Welch Birthyear eBay 1/1! That's twice the Mickey!

If you factor in all the faded autographs (seems like roughly a third of them have significantly faded), this becomes even more scarce as far as viable Mantle autographs go from 1992 Score.

This particular card was priced very competitively, no doubt thanks to being in less-than-mint condition, particularly the corners, including a crease. But honestly, the condition only made me want it more. Let's imagine a likely backstory of this card based on its condition...

December 25, 1992. Little Timmy Jones receives a few packs of 1992 Score in his stocking from Santa. But Timmy is more interested in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that Santa left under the Christmas tree. By early January 1993, Timmy eventually beats Super Mario World and is looking for something else to spend his time on. Little Timmy pulls the '92 Score packs out of his closet and begins tearing them open. He's thrilled to pull cards of his favorites Ken Griffey Jr and Jeff Bagwell.. even a special card of some old dude he heard his dad talk about once or twice. Timmy wants to give it a closer look, but a new Darkwing Duck episode is about to start and so he throws the cards into a box with with other cards for the time being. Cut to a few weeks down the line. Timmy gets a copy of A Link to the Past (Zelda 3) and pretty much forgets about those baseball cards.  

Many years later, after Timmy has gone off to college, his mom wants to tidy up the house a bit and gathers up some old stuff Tim surely wouldn't have use for any longer. Among a Battleship game and a few TMNT figures is the shoebox with the baseball cards. She makes a Goodwill run, where an employee tosses the cards into a ziplock bag and slaps a price tag on it. A week later, local man Joe Smith is sorting thru the lackluster options at his local Goodwill when he finds the lot of junk wax for $5. While the price is a little steep for some near-worthless cards bouncing around the ziplock bag in rough shape, Joe notices a Griffey "Rated Rookie" visible through the bag and figures there might even be an early Jeter or something in there too, so he takes a chance and ponies up a Lincoln for the lot. Later that day, while quickly flipping through the cards-- taking out the likes of Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken while tossing the rest-- Joe is frozen in his tracks when he comes to a card of Mickey Mantle that seems to be autographed. "Holy crap! This can't be real, can it?!" Joe talks to a buddy of his who is a little more knowledgeable about the hobby. Joe isn't sure what he's found.. is it even real?? His friend suggests he send it in to be graded by PSA, notable authority on card grading. Joe sends in the card, and a few weeks later, it comes back with an "authentic" grade. Wow!, Joe thinks. He puts the card away with his few other good cards and goes about his life.  

A few years later, Joe wants to raise a couple hundred bucks for a Nintendo Switch and decides to list some of his cards on eBay. While browsing newly-listed Mantles on eBay, a guy named Kevin Johnsen notices the card and snatches it up to flip. A few weeks go by and Kevin puts the card back up on eBay. It doesn't sell at his original asking price, so he eventually lowers the price a few bucks.. and then a couple weeks later, hoping to move the card by Christmas, he lowers it a little more.. then boom, some schmoe in Portland, Oregon pulls the trigger on the card, embiggened by a birthday check from his mother and a generous eBay Bucks promotion, achieving his dream of owning a Mickey Mantle autograph.

Ok, maybe it didn't go down exactly like that, but might not be too far off.

And so here we go. I've got a slabbed authentic pack-pulled Mickey Mantle autograph. Wow.
The beat corners only add to the appeal in my eyes, drastically lessening the likelihood that it's counterfeit or trimmed, and you can tell it's got a story to it. Just beautiful.

A dream card, no doubt! Thanks for reading.

taking it back to 1987 with a few customs

Most of the customs I've made lately are for others, but I took some time today to make one for me I had been wanting to make for a long time.

Ha no, it wasn't Kathy Ireland, but the card I wanted to make was in the design of 1987 Donruss. Once I spent some quality time making a template, I had some fun with it.

Kathy Ireland is looking great for the Mets here in a meaningless late September game. Sadly, she would be DFA'd at the end of the season after only batting .198 in 74 at-bats.
Nah, I'm just being silly; I don't know the actual origin of the photo.

Bruce Springsteen gets a mocked-up card too. Kinda fun. Glory days, well, they'll pass you by.. am I right?

I wasn't planning on printing these above two out, but maybe someday.

Ok, here's the card I set out to create. Chris D. Jones is a guy who went to my high school and had brief stints in The Show with the Astros (1985) and Giants (1986), but unfortunately never got a real MLB card. In fact, I've only ever seen one photo of him in a major league uniform, this one that Rod shared with me. It's originally in black and white, though I've made an attempt at colorization here. Eh, good enough! I still need to make the back, but I hope to print out a few of these soon and make a TTM autograph request.

This one was a request on Twitter. Mickey Mantle taking Paul Simon deep in the video for "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard". Neat!

It was Hoyt Wilhelm's birthday the other day and I wanted to Tweet about it, but couldn't find this gif I made last year. (I usually search my blog to find my old gifs if I don't have them otherwise handy.) Maybe I forgot to post about it here? Well, there it is for next time!

Another one by request a few days ago. Here's a gif card of 75-year-old Luke Appling hitting a homer at an Old Timers game in '82 off Warren Spahn. Gotta love it!

That's all for today. Thanks for reading!