Paul Molitor 2004 Topps Retired refractor

Here's another nice one I was recently able to score for my 2004 Topps Retired refractor auto quest.. Paul Molitor!

Great looking card. He's got a distinctive, pleasing signature with a big P loop and tiny other letters.

The Ignitor is damn near about to make this card catch fire in its black refracting glory!

Slam dunk Hall of Fame career. Don't forget about his 1993 World Series MVP award, too.

Molitor is a "Hundred Card Club" guy for me. Above are a few highlights from the PC. I only have one '78 Rookie Shortstops card, and it's currently in the Molitor PC, but I've been tempted to pluck it out for my 1978 Topps setbuild that isn't too far from completion. And hell, I wouldn't mind a third copy thanks to pesky Alan Trammell, another PC guy (whose 2004 Retired refractor has become my top white whale, coincidentally).

My base versions of Molitor and the Ernie Banks I showed off a few days ago are now available for trade if you wanna offer me something tempting for either of them.

Another look at that comely '04 refractor. Thanks for stopping by!

recent customs n' such

Here are a few cards of my own making that I've whipped up recently.

Credit goes to Gio at WTHB for the inspiration for this custom. He posted a version of this '78 "dream card" (feasibly squeezing Ozzie Smith and Lou Whitaker onto the iconic Paul Molitor/Alan Trammell rookie) that made me want to print out a copy of my own. I ended up putting my own spin on it with some alterations, but still have to give him credit for the great idea.

I even gave it a full back too.

I made this "1971" Barry Larkin a while back as a surprise bonus to throw in a trade with a Reds collector. I like making customs that I can get good mileage out of, giving copies to multiple trader buddies. Like with this one, Reds fans might get a kick out of it, plus I could also send one to Dennis (University of Michigan guy) and another to Jedi Jeff (double play photo).

A pair of cards I made for Julie a couple months or so ago. I may have posted these already, but they're pretty cool, so here they are again.

While I didn't make this song nor this image, I put the two together and uploaded it to YouTube per request by somebody on the Calamine facebook page looking for this song (coincidentally also by a woman named Julie), a rare demo version of "More Sad Robots". It's a good one, if you like sparse, desolate music best listened to in the dark late at night.

I made a couple 1970 Kellogg's style cards, including a Hoyt Wilhelm "that should have been" (he was not included in the cereal set that year, and his '70 Topps card with the Braves was a logoless airbrush job) and a 1/1 Willinghammer for Wes. These obviously don't have the "3D effect" of the originals, but are otherwise similar to the cards from 1970. I even tried to "curl" the Hoyt copy I sent to Dimebox Nick to give it some pseudo-authenticity, but I'm not sure it got the point across. haha

Looking into it, I've only found a couple real cards where Hoyt is featured in a Braves uniform: 1971 Topps oddball "Baseball's Greatest Moments" (want!) and 2001 Topps American Pie (have!). His 1971 OPC card lists him as a Brave, but he's pictured as a Cub.

If you're a Rick & Morty fan, you're probably aware that Cryptozoic Rick & Morty Season 1 cards were released earlier this week. I love the show and seriously considered picking up a box, but the prices were nearly $200 for a hobby box that promised you a sketch card and maybe an auto or second sketch card. I ultimately decided I didn't like that price-per-value and decided to just make my own sketchcard, saving myself a couple C-notes. Here's Morty freaking out over a predicament he finds himself in. While it obviously isn't on par with the artistic quality of officially released sketchcards, can't beat it for the price! LOL. And being one of my sketchcards, you know there's a pretty good chance it glows in the dark...

Turned out pretty decent! Looks sort of like Munch's The Scream. I should do more Rick & Morty sketchcards if I think of it. I suck at drawing actual people, but if I stick to cartoons and robots, my results aren't too bad.

So there are some recent creative endeavors of mine. (Legal disclaimer: None of this stuff is for sale; just made for myself and/or as gifts for a very small number of my collector friends.)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

When you suddenly realize it's a card show weekend

A "surprise" card show coming up for me, as I forgot it was so soon in the month this month. Nice!
I hope to score some sweet cards and show them off in the coming days.

Speaking of surprise cards, here's a trio of cards that were lost to me for years. They had been missing since I moved to my current house back in early 2014. Maybe you remember in my Paul Molitor PC post a few weeks ago I was lamenting how I couldn't find his RC that I knew I had somewhere. Well, just a few days ago I finally found it, plus a vintage Wilt Chamberlain and a Dick Allen auto (with custom glow-in-the-dark case) hiding out on the side of a big box with some other less-interesting stuff. Very happy to bring these guys back into the fold!

Here's a recent Twitter score. @vicsdugout posted a few "trade bait" cards a little while ago, and I spotted a '57 I needed for my set. I was able to round up some 2017 set needs and various Texas Rangers for him and we had a deal. Pretty sweet card of HOFer Luis Aparicio!

Here's my dog Annie last weekend staring down some pigeons at the 2017 Portland Dragonboat race (where my wife's team took home gold, proud to say!). Annie had a great time cheering on her mama, (and staring down pigeons), and I hope to have as similar focus at the card show tomorrow, zeroing in on some great cards.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Trade roundup featuring a Whole Lotta Molly

Three trades arrived in the past week or so. Let's take a look.

First up is from Jeffery a.k.a. The Turrdog. He was the only contestant in my Big Fun Game I wasn't familiar with. Turns out he's a pretty cool guy and sent me a nice "thank you" package even before his prize arrived!

Kicking off with some tasty vintage, here's a Rusty Staub I needed for my '64 Topps setbuild. And the Jim Katt (sic) is a nice upgrade over the "tape stains on the corners" copy I previously had in my '65 Topps setbuild. The rest are sharp upgrades for PCs.

Jeff also hit some more modern needs of mine, including a couple for my Marquis Mania project, and my first real card of the Vogelmoster in his new Mariners duds.

Thanks a lot, man! Very appreciated. Glad to hear you're happy with your prize and the bonus cards I sent. (Turns out he's a big Mattingly collector, so I gave him a bunch of Mattingly customs in addition to the Andre Dawson auto he came away with in the game.)

- - -- ---o

Next up is another package from a happy Big Fun Game player. (I definitely don't want anyone who won a prize to feel obligated to send me anything in return, though I'm obviously not going to turn down cards! haha) This time Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary hooked me up with some good stuff.

Awesome trio of Dave Winfield cards, including a couple oddballs featuring photos from his amateur days as a two-way player, plus a sweet bat chip with him in his Padres uniform.

Speaking of oddballs and Padres, these are cool. Brian, could you shed some light on that Bip? It seems to be a thin piece of metal, similar to a printing plate, but it's a bit oversized and blank on the back. Well, whatever it is, it's a welcomed addition to my Bip PC. (Update: apparently a backdoored black printing plate from 1994 Leaf. NICE!) The Nate Colbert scratch off is aces, as well!

Now onto the Paul Molitor portion of the post. Nonchalantly snuck into my Molitor PC post was the announcement for the Big Fun Game, but the other take away from that post was I was just a handful of cards away from my goal of having 100 different Paul Molitor cards. Brian answered the call and dug up several dupes from his collection he could share with me. Some great stuff here!

And more! Thanks so much, Brian! Hopefully by the time you read this, you'll have received the Tony Oliva auto you snagged in the game, plus the healthy dose of bonus Twins I threw in. And hopefully there are a few needs in there for ya.

- - - ---o

But credit where's it's due, the trader who gets the props for getting Molly into my Hundred Card Club is ol' Johnny Miller who quickly shot me over a couple PWEs.

John helped fill some glaring "overproduction era" cards I was missing.

John and Brian only overlapped on one card, the Pinnacle with the gold pyramid bottom. No coincidence it's the only Twins-era card from John, I'm sure. So yeah, the PC is now comfortably over 100 cards, giving me some sense of accomplishment there.

Big thanks, John! I feel bad because he's sent me like 4 or 5 card mailings since the last one I sent him. But rest assured, I'm almost done with that project I've been working on for him, and will be sure to go big with a return package to balance the scales soon.

And speaking of mailings, I mailed out BFG prize packages today for Matt Prigge and Corky. That means I'm still just working on the packages for Nick, Bo, Wes, and John. Soon!

Well, thanks for reading and have a great near-holiday weekend!

Paul Molitor PC

Let's take a look at my Paul Molitor player collection. He's a guy I've liked collecting since my childhood stint in the hobby. He put up some big numbers during his career, and seemed to have a lot of fun playing the game. Maybe not a top tier PC of mine, but I'd like to get him into my Hundred Card Club one of these days, so let's take a look at how close I am.

I've got a couple copies of his 1979 Topps card, with one being a neat miscut "variation."

Putting together this post, I've discovered my 1978 Topps RC with which he shares top billing with Alan Trammel is AWOL. I bought it in 2013 in my very first COMC order for seven bucks. Man, I hope it turns up one of these days.. love that card.

Here's what I've got from the early 80s. Still need his 1980 Topps and several Donruss and Fleer cards.

Wow, turns out I've got a lot of mainstream holes in the PC from 1987 and 1988.. and hell, I don't have any 1986 Molitor cards! ..wouldn't have guessed that prior to sorting the PC for this post. The only thing here not somewhat an oddball is the '88 DK.

1989.

Lots of cards from 1990, with only Score missing from the main sets that year.

1991. Donruss and Fleer are the notably absent cards here.

Looks like 1992 is pretty well covered.

1993 gets into the Blue Jays years.

1994. Love the dufex.

Mid '90s (more Blue Jays cards).

Late '90s (Twins era). Turns out Paul is baseball's all-time leader for most games played while wearing uniform number 4. Wow! Eighteen of his 21 years as a player were spent suiting up as No. 4 (He wore 19 during his time on the Blue Jays... a tribute to his former teammate Robin Yount?). And he's tacking on more years in a #4 jersey as manager of the Twins these days.

Post-career cards from the decade of the '00s. Luke Appling, Duke Snider, Mel Ott, and Lou Gehrig are a few other big-name ballplayers to wear #4.

Here are my cards of The Ignitor from the current decade. Maybe I've got number 4 on my brain and am posting this PC today, June 15th, because, well.. it's Baseball Card Breakdown's 4th anniversary! Pretty cool, huh? I'm not expecting this post to get all that many hits. If you're reading this, you're probably either a big Paul Molitor fan or just a reader who clicks on pretty much whatever I post, trusting it'll be worth a couple minutes of your time. And I know your time is valuable, so I appreciate that!

And the hits! Hey, keep it on the downlow, but in celebration of #4, let's quietly round up some readers who want to play a big fun game. If you want to play, leave a comment below with the exact phrase, "Man, that Molitor PC makes me tingly!" Well, ok, it doesn't have to be that exact phrase; you can use a word other than tingly if you want. But the exclamation point is a must. Instant disqualification if there's no exclamation point. Sorry, Jays fans, must have a US address to play due to postage concerns. I don't even have all the goodies sorted out and numbered yet, but there will be some good stuff up for grabs. Update: the cutoff for getting in on this will likely be by the end of today, 6/15.

I forgot to snap a shot of a cardback with lifetime stats, so yoinked this one from COMC. Very nice career.

By my count, I've got 93 unique Paul Molitor cards in the PC (plus a couple more floating around somewhere).. pretty close to my goal.
Thanks for reading!

this trade roundup keeps it poppin'

Let's run through the incoming cardboard I've received over the past couple weeks through the kind folks on the cardsphere.

Spiegel83 of the dormant blog Nomo's Sushi Platter spoke up for an available Nomo #'d insert I posted about after my last card show. I sent him the card and a few others I thought he might dig in a Dodgers-centric PWE, and he returned fire with a big package full of a bunch of guys I collect.

Great lot of Pops. I think that last card there my first ever Day-glo parallel, a retail-only gimmick from 2013 Archives that didn't really catch on. Pardon the pun, but it definitely pops in-hand.

Some spiffy Frank Robinson cards here.

Adam Jones looking good.

The Orioles keep coming with a terrific Manny Machado lot.

Nice additions to my Tom Seaver PC.

Solid bunch of Stan Musial.

Ten welcomed Molitor cards.

And here's the "miscellaneous" grouping to close the package. You know, just these 5 cards alone would have been a fine return for what I sent him. Very generous.. Thanks a lot for the trade, man!

- - - - --o

So I got that above package over a week ago, then it was quiet for several days until a flurry of unexpected PWEs graced my mailbox late this past week.

This one here is from GCA at The Collective Mind.

Shiny trio of Michael Sam cards. Pretty!

This one is a trip. I received this card on 4/20, just hours after posting my Bake McBride PC. GCA posted a comment on that post saying he might have a 1981 Topps Coke card for me. And I'm not sure what time-traveling magic he's got, but yep, here it is.

Thanks, man! I'll try to hit you back with something soon.

- - - - --o

Next is a PWE from John Miller at Johnny's Trading Spot. He's relentless!

Three cards of Josh Donaldson, including a card that says Memorial Day on it. Topps, if you want to do an insert set for Memorial Day, howbout photos of guys with their hat over their heart during the anthem? That'd be cool. But this is just another generic insert.

And a Hoyt and a couple Gavin Floyd cards. I'm at the point where I seem to have most of the readily available modern Hoyt cards and flagship Floyds, though I think I needed 2 of the 3.. so, not bad.

Thanks, John. I have not made any progress on your customs since the last PWE you sent me, it saddens me to admit, but they are on my to-do list and I'll do ya right when I get around to sending you cards.

- - - ---o

Finally, a one-card surprise from Judson at My Cardboard Habit. He recently busted a couple boxes of Gypsy Queen and landed a card he rightfully thought would go well in my collection.

My first 2017 Gavin! And my first in-person look at 2017 Gypsy Queen. I've been tempted to pick up a blaster of the stuff, but have resisted, as I'm trying to cut down on retail card purchases this year, relying on my Black Friday haul from last year to get the occasional ripping fix.

Back to this card, it's a /250 parallel of Gavin Cecchini. He's currently in AAA, but with Jose Reyes' struggling, he might get called up to fill an infield spot for the Mets soon.

Sweet card! Big thanks, Judson! I'll send you back something soon.

Thanks again to these guys who sent me cards, and thanks you the rest of you for reading.