Geena Davis here is taken out of context from an old SNL skit I saw the other day, but I figured it'd make for a quirky intro to another post documenting my quest to build a run of Topps flagship from the 70s.
GCA kindly thought of me while at a recent card show and sent more help with the back end of 1972 Topps, still considered my top priority as far as trading goes. Now that's the kind of PWE I like to see. Much appreciated, my friend! I was already in his debt before this, but I've got a solid return shaping up to square things shortly.
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Next up is a package from another long-time blogger bud, Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life. He's one of the most solid traders I've had the pleasure to deal with, and it's so refreshing that condition means nothing to him. Sadly after so many swaps with him over the years, since I don't rip product or hit the card show anymore, I really have to scrape around my collection a while to find anything else to trade him. But luckily this time I was able to sort out some dupes for him from my old Kellogg's setbuilds, plus I had a few vintage Japanese cards in my Mike Reinbach PC that I ended up with dupes of, so that all added up to a respectable return for a healthy stack of vintage needs Bo was anxious to pull for me, with the understanding that my standards for condition have lowered considerably. Yeah, really at this point in my life, I'm just looking for the satisfying closure of completing some sets. I'm not concerned about their value and I don't plan to ever sell them, and honestly I'm at the age where I could drop dead of a heart attack or whatever any day, so time's a-waistin'! That Johnny Bench card seems like it spent at least one recess period in some kid's pocket, but yeah, if that's the Johnny Bench card in my '77 Topps set, so be it. My set was at 46% complete, but thanks to this fat stack from Bo (with some of the bigger names on top), I'm now up to 65%. Not bad. Thanks again, Bo!
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Just got in my latest COMC order yesterday in that I placed near the end of January, so I'm excited to finally get that stuff in. Really shows you how I rely mostly on trades for setbuilding because there were zero vintage setbuilders in the order. I probably should start shopping around more to get serious about finishing off more sets, but seems I'm always busy searching for other cards online. I'll try to post about more from that order soon, but here's a couple vintage PC needs I picked up..
A couple more mid-70s Mike Reinbach cards from Japan, both featuring a powerful swing. I still need a bunch his Calbee cards, but they seem to pop up a lot more often these days. Back when I first started collecting him, they were few and far between, but now there's always an assortment on COMC. I've been known to upgrade cards I already own if the price is right (and that's how I ended up with the dupes to send Bo). These were needs, not upgrades, though, and this pair is in really nice condition. Like, I thought these cards were originally distributed in bags of chips? Somebody took good care of them.
Anyways, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.
I'm back home after a few days in Louisville for my cousin's kid's wedding. She's a friendly, outgoing young lady, so it was a big wedding with pretty much my whole family in attendance.. likely the last non-funeral where we'll ever be all together, honestly. Great seeing everybody again, including my Uncle Ed (my only blood-relative uncle) whom I hadn't seen in 20 years. I didn't really end up with much in the way of interesting photographs to share on the blog like how I did for my Chicago trip over the summer, so no "travelogue" blogpost this time.
Uncle Ed sadly lost his wife Karen last year to cancer. My Aunt Karen was pretty great lady and it's a bummer I didn't get to see her more often. My last interaction with her was mailing a little "get well soon" card/letter. I had vaguely remembered she was related to a former NFL player, and asked her about that in the letter. Here's a snippet from her reply email:
It was the 80s when my cousin Karl Swanke played with Green Bay. I think he played about 11 years. One of the Chicago games we went to, we got to meet Walter Payton and shake his hand.
Another cousin, Karls brother, Rob swanke, played with Denver Broncos for a short time.. maybe one season.
And my nephew, one of my sisters sons, PJ Fleck, played with SF 49ers for a season, maybe 1 game and now he is head football coach at Minnesota university. He loves it and they seem to like him too. So yes football has always been our big interest!!!
That's pretty cool, huh?
Not a lot of cards available from those guys (the legendary Walter Payton notwithstanding, of course), but Karl Swanke has a few oddballs out there, and I've now picked up a couple.
Neat to have cards of a guy I'm kinda related to in my collection now. I like when I've got a personal connection to players I collect, similar to my Guys From Granite subcollection of players who attended the same high school as me, Granite Hills. The rest of this post will look at some new additions there.
My last post mentioned there was another Padrographs PWE waiting for me at home, and here's that card, a signed Brian Giles. The signature gets a little lost in the dark uniform, but still a sweet addition to the PC. Thanks, Rod!
Brian had graduated a few years before I went to Granite, but during my tenure he often worked there as a security guard ("narc", we kids called them) during the minor league offseason.
This isn't a particularly attractive card, but when it popped up, I jumped at the chance to add a unique entry to my Shane Spencer PC. Finding it on TCDB now, I'm pretty sure this is 2022 Topps Spotlight 70 II by Andy Friedman - CMYK 4-Color Test Prints Black #8 Shane Spencer SN1.
I'll have to pick up the base (in color) version of this at some point, and maybe some of the other parallels if they're cheap. I think this only got on my radar because I have a saved eBay search for Shane Spencer 1/1s because I still need the 1/1 from his 2020 Topps Archives autograph to complete that rainbow.
Shane Spencer is the only guy from my high school to win a World Series. I would have been happy with a 1998 rematch this fall, but unfortunately the Padres and Yanks couldn't grab their respective pennants. Guess I'm rooting for the Phillies. I've got decent PCs of Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, so might as well root for them.
Here are a couple cards I was super stoked over. I knew Mike Reinbach had a couple modern "legend" cards from Japan, but years went by searching/waiting for them to be available to purchase from the ol' USA. They finally popped up in separate listings from the same Japanese seller at surprisingly low buy-it-now prices. I snagged them both quickly, not even bothering to combine shipping (which was also cheap). The next day I saw I had a refund from eBay and immediately thought the seller mistakenly listed them so cheap and was backing out. But thankfully, no, they were just kindly partially refunding me a little bit in regards to combined shipping. Very nice of them!
To refresh your memory, Mike Reinbach was the very first guy from my high school to break into the majors, getting a cup of coffee with Baltimore in 1974 before heading overseas for a successful stint with the Hanshin Tigers. His retirement was cut short by a fatal car accident just shy of his 40th birthday.
Other than an "All-Time Orioles" oddball from 1991, these are Reinbach's only post-career cards on the market, the left card from 2013 and the other from 2015. I love how the '15 back includes his career stat lines for both Japan and MLB.
Still a ton of his Calbee playing-days cards left for me to track down, but checking these two modern cards off the list feels great.
Now let's change gears and check in with the guys from my high school who are currently active in the minors...
2022 Guys From Granite Update
Trenton Brooks had a solid year with the Guardians' AAA team. Here's hoping the 27-year old can crack the bigs next year.
Andrew Brown, a pitcher in the Phillies org, lost his entire 2022 season to injury. Bummer. Hope he comes back strong in '23.
Dillan Shrum is a slugging first-baseman who knocked 16 taters for the Royals' high-A team. Best of luck to him progressing up the chain.
Honorable mention: Sean Ross, who got cards in 2016 Leaf Perfect Game (see my 2018 update), is still an active amateur, which kinda surprised me. Put up good numbers at Indiana State and in collegiate summer league this year. Would be cool if he went pro next year, but we'll see.
Ok, that'll do it for this post. Thanks for reading!
My experiment into the effect of the word "cardboard" in a post title increasing views faces its toughest challenge with today's Guys From Granite post. Understandably, showing off cards of little-known players who went to my high school doesn't typically generate much traffic, but I still feel obligated to post about notable pickups for this minicollection of mine. I'll be interested if this post fares better than expected.
Putting "cardboard" in the title might be a stretch since technically this first one is metal...
Leading off the three cards featured here today is an autographed magenta printing plate of Travis Taijeron. My quest for the master rainbow of this card is now down to just 3 cards: two printing plates (black and cyan, the best ones) and a red refractor (#/5, non-wave).
Quick recap on Travis: His last name is pronounced "Tyrone". He was drafted by the Mets back in 2011. Finally got a cup of coffee in NYC in 2017. Spent 2018 with the Dodgers' Triple A squad. Not counting a 2017 Topps Now card, he finally got a true rookie card in the form of an auto in 2018 Topps Chrome Update (no base card, just the auto and all the parallels that come with it).
This year sees Travis back in the Mets organization, transitioning from the outfield to first base with Syracuse. He got off to a hot start and was named week-one Mets Minor League Hitter of the Week. He's cooled down a bit since, with his batting average around the Mendoza Line now, but his 8 dingers lead the club.
This next pickup is the first graded card for my Mike Reinbach PC. I think it's my first graded Japanese card, too. I already had a decent raw copy of this card, but it wasn't as nice as this one, and it was a solid deal, so I pulled the trigger on the upgrade. The warped penny sleeve PSA used detracts from the appearance, so I'm a little tempted to break it out, but I probably won't, at least not anytime soon. (I hear they charge $5 for a simple re-slabbing-- like if the case gets cracked or something, PSA will put the card in a new case for $5-- so maybe someday I'll pay to get re-slabbed.) I just kinda like the novelty of having a graded Reinbach. Haven't seen one before this popped up.
Casey Craig topped out at AA, but thanks to being included in 2006 Bowman and Bowman Chrome, he's got plenty of parallels out there for me to hunt down. This orange refractor #'d 9/25 is the lowest-numbered card in the li'l PC now-- and also my first graded card of his, not that that means much to me. I have no delusions of going after a master rainbow for this one since I was so late to the game-- didn't start collecting him until 2014-- but I'll snag parallels I need if the price is right.
Chrome cards are really closer to plastic than cardboard, so other than the Reinbach (which is trapped in a plastic slab), this post was more like Hometown Metal and Plastic Additions, but close enough! I'll do a recap post later in the week taking a look to see if page hits have seen a rise thanks to "cardboard" post titles.
Today marks 10 years since I moved up to Portland. So it's been a full decade since I packed up my things and left behind my hometown of El Cajon in East County San Diego. Let's see.. in that time, I've had 3 different jobs, a couple awesome dogs, gotten married, and most importantly as far as this blog is concerned: returned to the hobby of card collecting.
One way I like to "remember my roots" is by collecting cards of pro athletes who went to my high school-- "Guys From Granite", as I call that part of my collection.
One sidequest I had since the beginning was to acquire an autograph of every Guy From Granite who made the major leagues (currently totalling 8 players), and I'm pleased to announce I've just recently met that goal, finally. To celebrate, let's run down the list chronologically.
#1 Mike Reinbach
MLB debut: 1974
The original Guy From Granite, Mike got a cup of coffee with the Orioles in '74, then had greater success playing in Japan. A few years after his playing days, he was tragically killed in a car wreck. Maybe someday I'll find an autographed card, but for now I've got to make due with a pair of signed index cards. See also: The Harrowing Tale of Mike Reinbach, Setting the Mike Reinbach story straight, and Mike Reinbach apocalypse.
#2 Chris Jones
MLB debut: 1985
Chris D. Jones briefly appeared with the Astros in '85 and the Giants in '86. He was the last guy I needed an autograph from. His common name makes it hard to search for his cards/autographs (there are a lot of people named Chris Jones in the world), but thanks to Padrographs Rod and an autograph dealer buddy of his, I was finally able to track down a signed minor league card. I've also got his mailing address now and I plan to try a TTM attempt with a custom or two soon. See also: Chris Jones, but not that Chris Jones
#3 Brian Giles
MLB debut: 1995
Brian Giles had the longest, most successful baseball career of the guys to come out of Granite Hills High, and so it's no surprise he easily had the most cards produced of the players on this list. He was still active after the next 4 guys on this list had come and gone. See also: Brian Giles was a narc at my school and My Brian Giles PC
#4 Tom Fordham
MLB debut: 1997
Tom is currently the only pitcher to ever make it to the bigs out of Granite Hills. He got into 36 games (6 of them starts) with the White Sox in '97 and '98. He got some cardboard love back in the day, mainly from Bowman and Best. See also: Tom Fordham went to my high school
#5 Shane Spencer
MLB debut: 1998
Brian Giles may have had the longest career of the guys on this list, but Shane had the good fortune of being a part of the turn-of-the-millenium Yankees dynasty and picked up 3 rings in his relatively short career, highlighted by some clutch home runs in the fall of 1998. See also: Yankee hero Shane Spencer went to my high school
#6 John Barnes
MLB debut: 2000
Now we're entering my time at Granite. John was a big man on campus when I was a freshman/sophomore while he was a junior/senior. He came up through the Red Sox organization before being traded to the Twins where he got a few dozen MLB at-bats in 2000-2001. Later attempted a comeback as a pitcher, though didn't make it past AAA. See also: I went to school with John Barnes and he played in the majors
#7 Marcus Giles
MLB debut: 2001
As I've mentioned several times in the past on this blog, I was in the same grade as Marcus, going to school with him from elementary school all the way up through community college. Sure was a thrill to watch him rise through the minors and become an NL All-Star in 2003. See also: My classmate the All-Star
#8 Travis Taijeron
MLB debut: 2017
After an extended dry spell, it was great to see another Guy From Granite finally crack the majors near the end of the 2017 season. It looks like Travis recently signed a minor league deal with the Mets, returning to his original organization after a year on the Dodgers' Triple A squad. Wishing him the best of luck in the upcoming 2019 season. See also: Better Call Up Taijeron! and Superfractor auto pickup!
That wraps it up. Here's to another 10 great years up here in the Pacific Northwest, though I'll always keep my hometown in my heart and in my collection.
Continuing in the series I've retroactively titled "Guns N' Randoms" where I show off some pickups that I may or may not be able to group together in a meaningful way under the title of a Guns N' Roses song, here are some various cards I've picked up recently that relate to my personal "Paradise City" hometown of San Diego/El Cajon.
Oh won't you please take me home! I thought this risque 2017 Chrome refractor photo variation of Kris Bryant was hilarious when I first saw it making the rounds last year on Twitter, and had to include it in my latest COMC order. Here, Kris seems to be enjoying an intimate moment with the Cubs logo, or perhaps someone out of frame. Or you could look at it another way and see the design as some sort of robotic wiener. Regardless what's going on, it's a very amusing card and a nice addition to my KB PC. The pride of the University of San Diego is off to a good start this year, among league leaders in hits and average in the season's first couple weeks.
I was really happy to finally track down this Mike Reinbach minor league card last month.
The O.G. Guy from Granite, I've made several 70s customs for him, but I believe this is his only actual playing-days card before he went to Japan and became a star over there. It's also my oldest minor league card now, put out my TCMA in 1975.
And here's a Japanese Mike Reinbach card. I actually had this one, but hey, it was an upgrade for me, plus it was probably cheapest vintage Japanese card I ever bought. Put in a low bid and ended up winning it.
Also snagged this Reggie Bush in my latest COMC order. I think I searched serial-numbered cards sorted cheapest first, and looked for anybody I collect that I could pick off cheaply, with Helix High's Reggie Bush among the few finds.
I showed this card like a week or two ago on the day I bought it, but that was a pic from eBay and felt like cheating putting it on the blog, so now that it's in hand, here's El Cajon's own Greg Louganis.
My obsession with black refractors is well documented on this blog, and I love this Kevin Kouzmanoff eTopps card in the 1985 Topps design, another COMC pickup. Kooz had 3 nice seasons in San Diego, then bumped around for a while and battled injuries before finishing with a terrific 13-game comeback with the Rangers in 2014.
There's the back, if you're interested.
Oh! And hey, speaking of Topps revisiting their old designs, for those of you not on Twitter you might not have heard yet, but details of 2018 Archives were announced today. The cards in the base set will use the designs of 1959, 1977 and 1981. I'm very happy about this since Topps has yet to totally wear out any of those designs. Particularly 1981 rarely gets much love from today's Topps. Another cool thing about this year's Archives is it will include The Sandlot inserts, with autos, to boot. Hopefully they're not impossible pulls that Archives sometimes uses to toy with us (Heavy Metal autos, Charlie Sheen autos, Will Ferrell autos, Kevin Costner autos, etc.) Anyways, I'm excited for it and will likely pre-order a couple hobby boxes soon.
Here's a late, great pair of San Diego fan favorites. Both numbered Pacific cards, though the Cammy is definitely more eye-grabbing.
This is a special custom I cranked out for Cardblogger Con NW '18 last month. It was a coincidence that our favorite players suited up for the Padres (Kerry- Ozzie, me and Rod- Gwynn, and gcrl- Garvey). I think it makes for a nice little memento of the meetup.
I didn't spend much time on the back, but I did hand-number them /4, keeping this one for myself. I should note that I whipped these up right before I thought to invite Ken, which is why he got snubbed (Sorry, Ken!). Had I known he would be able to make it, I might have also included Rickey in a Padres uniform, since he's one of Ken's main PC guys (I did make a special Rickey custom for him that I gave him along with a few other customs, so I don't feel too bad about the situation.)
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! May the grass be green and the girls be pretty!
"Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the cards are shiny"
Nothing like collecting cards of guys who walked the same halls between classes as you. I personally like focusing on guys from my high school who went pro, but sometimes dabble with cards from guys who attended the same university and community college. Here's an update of some of my recent pickups.
After Tony Gwynn, no San Diego State alum had a more distinguished MLB career than Mark Grace (ok, maybe Graig Nettles). I've never really bothered to collect Grace before, but with so many Cubs fans in my trading circle these days, I keep an eye out for good Cubbie trading fodder, and that's how I came into these 2 hits. But now I'm thinking I'll hang onto them for representation in my SDSU minicollection (unless of course a Cubs fan wants to make me a crazy trade offer I'd be stupid to refuse [Looking at you, Twitch, and the Corey Seager /10 auto you recently pulled.. lol].) The Diamond King dual relic is /25 and the Tools of the Trade auto/relic is #'d 3/5. Like Gwynn, Grace is originally from the LA area, but came down to San Diego to get his learn on. Of course he'd go on to several standout seasons with the Cubs, collecting the most hits (1,754) of any player in the 1990s. He capped off his career with 3 years on the Diamondbacks, helping them win it all in 2001 over the Yankees.
These three autos are from my latest COMC order. Even if I don't go full-on player collector on these guys, I figured I'd at least score an auto from each of them.
Sean O'Sullivan went to Valhalla High School, which is the arch rival of my high school, so maybe it's no surprise I haven't started collecting his cards before this one. But hey, he did also go to Grossmont College just a few years after me, so I suppose that earns him a small place in my collection (Plus, this Just Minors auto was only $1.37). He's spent his career bouncing between AAA and the majors for several teams, including a stint with our hometown Padres in 2013, and most recently with the Red Sox last year. Looks like he'll pitch in Korea in 2017, signing a one-year deal with the Nexen Heroes of the KBO League.
Joe Kennedy is a guy I mentioned in a previous post when I got a Christmas Eve Card of him, and discovering he was a local guy is what helped jumpstart my Guys From Grossmont minicollection. He went to El Cajon Valley High School, which is where my best friend graduated from, so it's ok in my book. He was at Grossmont during the same time as me.. Hmm, wonder if I had any classes with him. He went on to pitch in 222 major league games between 2001 and 2007 before dying suddenly from heart disease.
Quintin Berry completes this auto trio. Like the previous two guys, he's never made a huge impact in the game, but was good enough to bounce around on a few major league rosters. He went to Morse High School, which also boasts Adam Jones (his classmate and friend), Sam Horn, and Mark McLemore as alumni. Berry played one season at Grossmont before transferring to SDSU where he got to play under Tony Gwynn. In 2012, he played 94 games for the Tigers as a rookie, but hasn't had anywhere near that much playing time since, though he did get a ring with Boston the next year. Looks like he'll begin the 2017 season with the Twins' AAA club.
Here's a page worth of Mike Jacobs cards from my latest Just Commons order. Mike graduated from Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and spent one year at Grossmont College before being drafted by the Mets in 1999. I shared a story on the blog before about how I'm pretty sure I had a class with him at Grossmont. He had some solid major league seasons in the late '00s, and played in Mexico these past couple years. He retired after the 2016 season and took a job managing in the Marlins organization, the team with which he hit the majority of his 100 career home runs. Anyways, I already had 2 or 3 autos of the guy, but wanted to round out the PC with a few more base cards, and these were just about a buck all total.
Ok, now we're getting closer to home for me. Casey Craig was drafted by the Mariners in 2003 out of good ol' Granite Hills High School. He put up solid numbers in A-ball, but sputtered out in AA and was done after 6 years in the minors. Bowman included him in 2006, though he had no autograph card produced, whether with Bowman or anybody else, as far as I can tell. So I had to settle for uncertified to add his signature to my collection. Well, actually it did come with a Letter of Authenticity...
..but I don't think this really adds any value or anything so I'll just throw it away rather than try to store it in my collection somewhere.
This is the Marcus Giles 2008 UD Spectrum "Retrospectrum Swatches" yellow printing plate. Normally, unless I'm rainbowing a card, I don't go after printing plates that much.. especially yellow, since they're typically faint and don't look great. But I couldn't resist adding another 1/1 of my former classmate for under $8 shipped. Plus it's my first plate of a relic, which is kinda weird and something you don't see often.
We close today with the grandfather of Guys From Granite, Mike Reinbach, the first grad from my high school to play in the majors thanks to a brief stint with Baltimore in 1974. The vast majority of his cards come from his time in Japan. The recent pickup here is the card on the right. When it popped up on eBay, it looked very familiar so I assumed I already had it. But before dismissing the auction as one I didn't need to bother with, I double-checked my PC, and sure enough, there was the familiar photo... but wait! White text on the bottom? Tighter crop? Yep, it's actually a different card. Different number on the back and everything. So I went after it and was able to score it at a decent price (the dinged corner probably helped keep the top bid down, but doesn't bother me much.)
So there's an update to my minicollection(s) of local dudes who went to at least one of the same schools as me. Thanks for reading!
A couple neat additions to the ol' Guys From Granite minicollection I wanted to show off. (And I know these posts aren't all that exciting to most of you, so I'm enticing you with revealing another prize bonus for my latest contest at the end.)
A year ago, Brian Humphries sent back what was my first-ever successful TTM, signing a Bowman refractor for me. I figured I'd try again this year, and this time, I utilized my card-making skills to whip up a card featuring his time as a Granite Hills Eagle. I think it came out pretty good (Sorry for borrowing the 1983 design, Topps; I swear I'm not selling any of these!) I sent 3 copies to Brian. In my letter I thanked him for signing for me last year, explained we went to the same high school hence the homemade H.S. card, and offered the extra two copies for him to keep. He was kind enough to sign two copies for me and keep the third for himself.
Thanks again to Mr. Humphries! Wishing him continued success with the RedHawks this season.
While I'm at it, I should mention a guy recently offered me a bunch of money for my Brian Humphries superfractor. The guy is trying to collect all the superfractors he can from that year of Bowman, and had his sights set on mine. I paid a pretty penny for it a year or two ago, and this guy offered me double.. perhaps even more if I squeezed him on it. But man, that superfractor is a jewel of this minicollection for me, so I had to decline.
Anyways, I would love to add more Granite customs to my Guys From Granite PCs, and in fact also have one currently out to John Omahen, though he got promoted to AAA right around the time I sent it to him via his AA team, so that might create an issue/delay getting it back.
Oh, and I should also mention that pro ball recently welcomed a couple new dudes who went to my high school: 2016 draftees Andrew Brown (Phillies) and Trenton Brooks (Indians). Hopefully they pop up with cards in prospect/draft-type products soon so I can add them to my collection. I wanted to get around to making customs for them and try sending to their rookie league teams to get autographed, though I haven't had the time.
Now lets switch gears from the newest Guys From Granite to the oldest, Mike Reinbach. I've posted about him several times, but for the uninitiated, he got a cup of coffee with the Orioles in 1974 but was unable to stick on a crowded roster despite impressive numbers on the farm. He later played in Japan with great success. Though an obscure name, he's definitely among my favorite players to collect.
I was pretty excited when this pair of slides from the Topps Vault popped up on eBay (separately, but at the same time). I already have a similar one of these...
shown here with the brightness cranked up
But now I've got a nice trio of photos from that lovely spring day in Florida.
Here are what the pictures look like when properly processed (courtesy of the eBay listings). Bummer Topps never got around to putting him on a card.. at least on a 4-player rookie card in 1974 or 1975 would have been great, but no dice. But back to these items at hand... In general, I kinda hate these color negatives from Topps Vault. I've picked up a few in the past (in addition to these Reinbachs, also have a Willie Stargell [on Braves!] and a Bill Madlock), but it's always a bit anticlimactic when they arrive. They look good in the auction page, but then when you get them, they don't "display" well since they're so dark. And if you want to scan it yourself, well, Topps distributes them in a magnetic case with a special Topps sticker sealing it. So if you wanted to take it out of the case, you'd have to break the seal, therefore hurting the collector value of the thing. So basically you're stuck just grabbing the jpg from the auction page, but that's got a big Topps logo watermark on it. Sure would be nice if Topps could include a non-watermarked printout with these when you won them! Maybe they could even just email a non-watermarked jpg to the winner of these auctions. But anyways, yeah, it makes these slides frustrating to a collector such as myself.
Oh, but I shouldn't be too hard on the fellas handling the Topps Vault, because along with the two negatives I won, they also surprised me with what appears to be the original file envelope the the images were kept in all these years:
I think this is super cool! One of the best surprise bonuses from an auction I've ever gotten. It seems to be a cut-in-half envelope ("bulk mail postage paid" thing on the reverse), and it identifies the player, team, year (73), and a grid for the types of photos the photographer took. Now this gives me some questions here. Head, No Hat, Action, Action (again?). Well, the "no hat" one is obvious in the above photos, though I wouldn't count any of the three as "action".. definitely not in-game action, anyway. Yet there were 3 action shots? I'm guessing that says "3?" but it almost looks like "37". I'm just trying to figure out what else I'm missing, if anything, from this shoot. It's my guess that there was a close up (similar to the "no hat" one but with hat) which would be "head", and perhaps one more shot of Mike holding the bat (and that would assume the 2 photos of him holding the bat that I have count as "action"). So looks to me like maybe there are a couple more negatives from this spring training photoshoot in existence. Perhaps they were sold before I started keeping a watchful eye on eBay for them. Or maybe they're still in the vault, to be sold at a later time. Or maybe there were only these 3. The photographer did pencil in "3?" after all. Who knows. But still a cool item. And I'll still keep an eye out for more Mike Reinbach cards (and card-like things) to add to my collection.
In fact, here's one now..
Another card from Japan. He's got a ton of Calbee cards like this, and I'm always happy to go after them when one I need pops up. It's funny that I was so desperate for even just one for so long, and now several have popped up within the past year or so. I feel like a bad supercollector with so many cards of the guy "out there" that I need, but it's obviously tricky when the cards are from another country, not easily available to English speaking folk like myself.
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Last call for my big 800th Post contest! I'll likely close the entry window sometime around late Friday or early Saturday so we can shake out a winner or two this weekend hopefully. So go enter if you haven't yet!
Here's another conditional bonus prize. If the winner of the contest runs an active card blog, included in the grand prize will be a complete 9-card set of 2015 Cardsphere Heroes. It was the first custom set I put together and I still have a 2 or 3 sets sitting around. This particular set potentially available is the "black ink glowstar 1/1" variant. For more info on this set, check out this post.
The small print for being eligible for this bonus prize is just that you've got to have a blog with at least one post by you in 2016 that shows at least one picture of a trading card. Even if you don't meet this requirement right now, I'll allow you to squeak in under the wire if you get it done before I name a winner. So if you've got a dormant blog, post something! If you've been thinking of starting a card blog, do it! Our little community of card-nuts is a better place when more people are active members, so I love when I can do my part to motivate people to post.
Now for a chance at a bonus entry into the contest, post a comment on this post suggesting a good name for a new card blog (by sharing it, you are giving your blessing for somebody to maybe actually use it). I'll award a bonus entry to the person who comes up with what seems to be the best suggestion or most clever or whatever.. I don't know, maybe I'll randomize if judging is too hard.. but someone will get the extra entry. Have fun with it.
