Rod rules

Remnants from Padrographs Rod's holiday pack ripping have been popping up on the blogs recently, and I've again been fortunate enough to be included on his Nice List. Rod swung by my house last month with a reusable grocery bag full of goodies including north of a thousand cards, mostly recent stuff. Took me a while, but I've finally got it sorted enough to pick out some highlights for a post.

After this instant-PC, looks like I'm rooting for Marcelo Mayer to breakout as Boston's next superstar. And he's a fellow San Diego area kid, so that's cool.

My Blake Snell PC pretty much doubled thanks to the stack from Rod, with the eye-catchingest ones pictured above. 

Elly De La Cruz is a fun player to watch/collect.

Tatis additions are always welcomed, especially fun stuff like this.

More shiny cards of guys I collect.. love it!

Funky stuff here with a modern Manny Machado oddball that has a nice gold swirl effect in-hand, a Corbin Carroll card you could play with if you're brave enough to pop it out, and a Jackson Merrill mini parallel.

Big ol' box o' Gwynns! By the handwriting on the box, looks like it originated from a local card show dealer I've bought from in the past (back in 2019, boxes of 1970 and 1972 Topps with similar writing on them). Sure, this box is mostly overproduction era, but there are undoubtedly a few needs for me in there, plus other modern Gwynns were mixed in with the other cards from Rod. So yeah, I'm due for a Gwynn PC update (he's one of the few guys I try to keep logged at TCDB). And I don't mind restocking on extra junk dupes because they often come in handy for cardart ideas.

I tried to get cute with this photo of some of the more visually interesting football cards of the lot. That's Adam Thielen in the back, Nick Bosa and Justin Herbert in the front.

My first pass through the boxes, I didn't know who Drake Maye was, just to give you an idea of how little attention I've been paying to football in recent years. But I've since ascertained that he's had a great season and helped lead the Patriots back to the Super Bowl, which is happening one of these days coming up, probably on a weekend, I'd assume. lol  But yeah, cool additions for my modest pigskin collection.

Excited to find a bunch of 2025 Topps Chrome Disney cards in the boxes, as these are all the rage with a certain segment of card collectors, right? I seem to recall I tried bidding on a Christmas Card of one of these things and getting blown out of the water. Remember how canary diamond was a 1/1 parallel back in 2011 or so? Well, this pair is unnumbered but I'll pretend they're really rare. Cheshire Cat is a nice pull. That Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite Disney flicks, with the original Mary Poppins and sleeper pick Bedknobs and Broomsticks rounding out my top 3.

Last thing to show today isn't a card but a nice replica jersey of Yu Darvish's City Connect uniform.

Very cool item to diversify my collection a bit, not just my Darvish PC, as I don't have much stuff like this. (I still have the partially cut-up pants that I used to make some custom Brian Giles game-used relic cards years back. I should really do something with what I still have unused. Maybe I could make cardart cards out of the pants or something?) But I'll resist taking a pair of scissors to this jersey. Yu is out for the year and likely to retire rather than slog through another long rehab as he pushes 40, but his agent wants to make sure he milks the Padres for all they can get before he walks away from that contract. Oh well, he had a solid career but collectors who've been keeping his cards in their "maybe HOF?" box will likely be cutting bait if they haven't already. I still luv Yu, though, and really dig this jersey.

Thanks again for the cool stuff, Rod! 

Incomings and Outgoings

Got some incoming cards to round up into a post.

I did a quick swap of unofficial cards with reader David B. who fancied a copy of the Willie Stargell - Braves custom I made recently. In return, I got this pair of old school customs somebody made circa 1970. David didn't have a ton of background into on them, but he had bought a larger lot with several of them on eBay in 2021. The person who originally made them must've gotten pictures from a periodical or book, affixing them onto cardboard and turning them into cards, or close enough. They're just a hair too big to fit in a standard top-loader.

Looks they had been intended to have stats on the back, but the data entry must've ended up being too tedious-- you couldn't just copy & paste back then-- so that section got a purple overhaul instead. But yeah, happy to spice up my Wampum and Hoot PCs with these.

Thanks for the trade, David! Fun stuff.

- - --o

I fielded my first trade request on TCDB in quite a while, which is mostly my fault because I haven't added squat to my FT/FS cards there in a long time. But apparently I had a few '72 Topps on there (that I had forgotten about-- in fact I've got a couple different '72 "starter lots" from my dupes that I've been meaning to put on eBay), and a friendly guy with the username aint56cool needed one, offering this pair of 1970 Topps. I gotta admit I haven't been tracking my '70 setbuild on TCDB, I just blanketly added all the semi/high numbers to my wants a couple years back since I needed most of them. And I did in fact need these two. Now just 310 cards left to go. Maybe by the time my retirement benefits kick in, assuming I live that long, I can use that 401k to finance landing a Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench. lol

- - --o

Next up is a surprise mailing I received from Japan.

Imported fresh! Love the early Darvish, and always down for an attractive lady on a trading card.

Zippy Zappy didn't include a note this time, but I'm assuming these were some leftover stragglers from the tail end of his through-the-mail autograph acquiring activity, with his budding Rockies fandom apparent with his lot of fellas. You may recall ZZ decided to tighten up his collection a while back before escaping America, jettisoning his non-personalized TTM returns, much of which has been entrusted to me. Happy to add these to the hoard.

Thanks as always, Zippy!

-  - --o

Ok, those were the "incomings", now for the "outgoings".

The Mark Fidrych Memorial Bird Feeder (a.k.a. The Bird Birdfeeder) has closed for the time being after about 2 years serving neighborhood feathered friends. Squirrels had occasionally been a nuisance in the feeder, but a recent late night rat sighting forced the closure, as I don't want to be supporting unwanted rodents on my property. I'm hoping to "reopen the restaurant" at some point, perhaps in a different spot. Anyways, the above card was the featured entertainment for the birds to enjoy while they ate. It's faded in the sun somewhat, but there's still some yellow hanging on.

- - --o

Sad to hear Val Kilmer passed away the other day, though I know his health had been in the toilet for the past several years. He did a lot of great work, from his early quirky films to the big-budget stuff. I watched his documentary a couple years back and he really was a fascinating dude. Anyways, this above Ginter auto is a cherished piece of my collection, scored in a blogger trade back in 2016. (Bubba, are you still out there?)

 - - --o

Now an update on my "latest art drop".. the silhouette cards from my previous post. Happy to report I sold out the Rickey Henderson cards within 48 hours! Interest was not nearly as robust with the other two featured athletes, however. So far I've moved just one Bo Jackson and zero Jordans.. kinda surprising to me, as I think they're super cool, but that's just how it goes sometimes. (Update: just sold 4 more Bo cards to one guy but don't feel like rewriting this paragraph.) Both Jordan listings had a weird thing where the listing didn't show up on the site until a day later, despite showing as active on my end. Not sure if that was a technical hiccup, or if perhaps listings mentioning 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan have a higher rate of getting flagged for moderation since counterfeits are so rampant with that card. But anyways, they're available now and we'll see if folks eventually start coming around to them. 

But my takeaway is that the market for Rickey cardart/custom stuff is strong, which is cool with me. I already had more Rickey stuff in the works anyways, so I'll continue that route, and spend less time on making new Bo and Jordan cards. (I also have plans for more subjects-- already made a Tim Flannery '88 Fleer silhouette card for Rod, plus a few Barry Bonds ideas for my guy who buys most Bonds cardart I whip up. [Though he passed on the pair of Christmas tree ornament cards. Maybe he doesn't celebrate? Fair enough!])

Also, the glowing cards did well-- they seemed to be among the quickest Rickeys to go, and the first Bo sale was a glower-- so I'll likely focus on more g.i.t.d. cards, which are my personal favorite anyway.

In fact, here's a sneak peek of my latest finished item with the lights out...

I'm still coming up with new ideas, as well as sitting on some good ideas that have been brewing on the backburner for years, so even if you don't dig the silhouette vibe, your boy Gav has more tricks up his sleeve, don't you fret. Thanks for following along!

mid December card revue

It's that time of year when free time and energy are in short supply. But I want to blog, so I'll try to keep it short and post some cards I've been meaning to give a moment in the spotlight.

I've had a little PC going for Tim Anderson for a few years now, but apparently I hadn't thumbed through my White Sox tradeables in even longer, because when I finally did the other day (looking for cards for a trade offer that fell flat), I found a bunch of his cards that I didn't realize I had, including these above highlights. While having a well-organized collection is nice, I'm sure, it's also fun to occasionally stumble upon cards you forgot you had.

-o-

And speaking of forgetting about certain cards, when I posted my Yu Darvish PC last month, I neglected to include my lone 1/1 of him. I used to occasionally pull the trigger on the "blank back" gimmicks that Topps Vault sells on eBay.

Nothing too exciting, but hey, I can truthfully say I own a Yu Darvish 1/1. I looked it up, and this set me back $5.97 in a big Topps Vault order that also included similar 2017 Holiday blank backs for Christian Yelich and Dinelson Lamet, along with old signed Topps contracts for Matt Ginter and Marcus Giles. While Topps Vault still sells blank back cards like this for newer sets, looks like their supply of contracts has dried up, as it's been a while since I've seen the account offer any for sale. (To read more about these contracts, check my big post from 2015.)

-o-

Check out these awesome customs I got from Gregory at the Nine Pockets blog! Love 'em! Thanks for the generosity, Greg! If you missed out on the giveaway, he sells them at a very fair price too.

-o-

Shiny parallels from Topps Pristine and All-Time Fan Favorites are super cool. It might be anachronistic, to use a fancy word, but I love refractors of old timers who played before shiny cards were a thing. (Well ok, Charlie Hough pitched so long, he actually made it into the refractor era and was included in the inaugural refractor class of '93 Finest [and also had a '94 Finest card]) But yeah, sometimes I take a look at what's available and might pull the trigger if one catches my eye for a decent price like the above did. The Bucky is a gold die-cut refractor, though calling it die-cut just because they gave it slightly bumpy edges feels like a stretch.

-o-

And one last shiny old-timer to close out the post...

Looks like a previous owner was so proud of this Bert Blyleven 2003 Topps Retired refractor auto that they displayed it in the sun for too long, and the signature is now considerably faded. But hey, it wasn't too pricey so I figured I'd take a flier on it. I hear Bert is a dependable TTM signer (with fee), so I'm planning to send this in for a new coat of ink and hope he's gracious enough to fulfill the odd request. But I'll wait until the new year when the post office settles down from the holiday surge. For now my question is: should I try to get off the remnants of the original auto? A little rubbing alcohol maybe? I should probably do a test run on a Chrome "junk auto" first to make sure it doesn't otherwise damage the card.

Nice career. The year this card came out, Bert received 29.2% of the vote for his Hall of Fame candidacy. He eventually made it to the magic number of votes in 2011.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your December isn't stressing you out too much!

Yu Darvish PC (by request)

How bout them 2021 Padres, huh? They were supposed to be good but then they were actually bad. I think Padres fans such as myself are pretty much numb to it by this point. Oh well, "we'll get 'em next year."

Last year around this time, I showed off my Blake Snell PC when he joined the Padres and expectations were rising. In the comments, Zippy requested a similar post for my Yu Darvish cards, another All-Star starter San Diego acquired suddenly, whom I had also already been collecting for a while. But I had some unfinished business there because I was in need of an autograph and well.. I just finally scored one!, so let's whip up this by-request post, better late than never.

Here it is. I had decided I wasn't going to cheap out with an unlicensed stickergraph but rather find a nice on-card auto. I really liked the look of this Finest refractor and ended up winning it.

And check the serial number near the bottom... Christmas Card! Yep, this card was a bullseye-hit for my collection.

Kicking off the rest of the collection with some Topps flagship, Chrome, n' stuff.

Bowman.

More various Topps.

Yu on old Topps designs.

Heritage insert and some Ginter.

Panini cards.

Some neat stuff to close out the post. Cool cards from his early days (he was apparently very expressive on the mound back then!), plus a relic I pulled back in 2015.

I still don't have any Padres cards of his, but it's no surprise seeing as I haven't busted any 2021 product or done much trading this year. But yeah, I'm up for any Yu Darvish cards not pictured in this post. He pitched okay for San Diego, but a definite step down from when he was the Cy runner-up with the Cubs in 2020. Hopefully he bounces back for a strong 2022 and maybe then the Padres will actually be good.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to make any requests for PCs of mine you might be interested in checking out in a future post.

Busting a couple boxes of 2017 Archives

Got my annual pair of Archives hobby boxes yesterday.

Let's see what I got! First up is Box 1:

Archives is always good for giving me a nice stack of guys I collect. Topps listened to the complaints about flimsy Archives card stock in years past and definitely upped their game this time with stock that's more in line with the likes of Heritage and Ginter.

If I had to rank them, I think the 1992 cards are the best. The 1982 cards are nice, but has been bitched about before, Archives already used that design not long ago (though this year's version is probably better, thanks to the cardstock if nothing else). I've never been a big fan of 1960 Topps, plus these are annoying because they're "backwards" in the packs (in regards to the orientation of the backs.. so if you want your card backs to face the same way, you've got to flip around all the 1960 cards). One knock I have against the 1992 cards is the stats on the back are truncated for guys with long careers.. boo! Oddly, glorious full (tiny text) stats are crammed in the 1982 backs. But the dark green backs of '82 make it tough to read the tiny text. If Topps was gonna truncate one of these, they should have done it the other way around (truncate '82, leave '92 full). Oh well.

Nice selection of up-and-comers.

Looks like I got the full Padres base team set from this one box.. nice. Always love to see the Wizard in the mustard as opposed to the ketchup. A notable absence this year is Tony Gwynn.. perhaps Topps let the contract with his estate lapse? (There are also no Griffey cards in the product. No Willie Mays either.)

My parallel game was solid with this box. Ryon Healy is having a fine rookie year (blue, #'d /75). Yu Darvish is a dude I kinda collect (red, #'d /25). I don't care much about Lackey, but hey, Cubs cards are always in demand as trade fodder (peach, #'d /199).

Unlike in 1960 Topps, these Rookie Star cards are an insert set, not a subset. Can't do much better than these 2 names.

Some more inserts. These are fine, though not super exciting. I feel like Topps has used that Arenado photo on like 50 different cards already.

Looks like these Jeter retrospective reprints are 2 per box.

Bummer time! Check the lower left corner of these cards. Ding City! The box got a bit crunched and damaged several cards, including the first auto. This wasn't Topps' fault, but rather Blowout Cards. In the past, I've bought my boxes from Dave & Adam's Card World. This year, I switched over to Blowout since their prices were a couple bucks cheaper. But man, I think I might rather pay a little extra to get the boxes shipped safely with bubble wrap rather than the boxes crammed into a tight shipping box without any extra protection. Sad to see an auto among the victims. Thankfully it wasn't anything awesome like a Hank Aaron auto or something. But still, I kinda like Aaron Boone thanks to the Boone Family being from my neck of the woods (East County San Diego). So yeah, bummer it's damaged.

My other promised auto had me sweating, as it wasn't pulled until the final pack. I was pretty happy with this Bill Lee auto. Not exactly a "big money" pull, but he's a neat character and a guy I collect.

In all, a pretty solid box despite the several damaged cards.


Up next is Box 2...

Glad to see the collation is better this year. After my two Archives boxes last year had nearly identical base cards in them, it was a relief to get plenty of cards in Box 2 that I didn't pull in Box 1.

There were several dupes, however, but not an obscene amount. The above 3 dupes were actually nice for me to pull, since these are the only "guys I collect" that were among the damaged cards from Box 1. So really the only casualty there for me was the Aaron Boone auto.

One key guy I didn't pull in Box 1 was Kris Bryant. Imagine my surprise to pull not one but two of his cards in Box 2. Turns out the grey uniform card is a photo variation. A look on eBay tells me these are selling for over $30, so that's pretty cool. Topps did setbuilders a solid this year by axing a SP section at the end of the set that vexed collectors who worked on completing previous Archives sets. Instead, there are some short-printed photo variations.. which you can choose to fuss with if you want to, or just ignore them and everything will be fine without worrying about "missing numbers." I think that's a good compromise for Topps to give hit-chasers something extra to chase without screwing set builders. I went through the trouble of checking the production code on every card I pulled (which is the easiest way to tell if it's a variant [it will end in 799]), and unless I missed one (again, the tiny text on the 1982 backs is very hard to read) this Bryant was the only one I pulled from either box.

The inserts in this box were highlighted for me by Bryce and Rizzo.

While the first box had some nice parallels, the second box was lacking in that department, with only a couple peaches (/199).

My autos in this box were a couple pitchers who had solid careers. While not amazing pulls (my mojo last year of pulling a 1/1 Griffey auto did not carry over into 2017) I suppose I like 'em alright. I remember Mark Langston fondly from his one season spent in San Diego, even if his numbers weren't great, but it was that magical 1998 season when they managed to make it to the World Series. As for Mike Scott, well, I remember one of the few vintage cards I owned as a kid was his multi-player rookie from 1980 Topps, for whatever that's worth. So could be worse than these guys. Hell, I'm just relieved I didn't pull a Skip Bayless auto, or that annoying foul ball guy or any jokers like that.

Besides the Bryant photo variation, the real star of this box was Derek Jeter. In addition to a couple base reprints, I also hit a green foil parallel #'d 48/99. If I wasn't so lazy, I should throw that on eBay to try to recoup a few bucks. But I'll probably end up hanging onto it.
One other thing to note is that the autos and the Jeter reprints seem to be on the old Archives card stock, noticeably less hefty.

So there you have it. A decent pair of boxes. Probably didn't quite recoup my purchase price, value-wise, but I wouldn't call them complete duds either, thanks largely to the solid pulls of the Bryant variation and Jeter parallel. All told, while somewhat on the fence, I think I enjoyed these boxes enough to keep my tradition going and tentatively plan on picking up a couple boxes of 2018 Archives next year.

Now I've got a couple big stacks of tradeables, so if any of my trading pals are looking for any base cards, let me know. And I'm sure of bunch of these will make their way into the 1,000 card prize package I'm putting together.

Oh hey, great response to my 1,000 Posts contest! Go join in if you haven't yet.

Bonus entry opportunity: The Darvish red parallel was the lowest numbered card in either box, /25. Sadly, not a Christmas Card, but still cool. Be the first person in the comments below to correctly guess the serial number and you'll get a bonus entry for the contest. (Update: congrats to gcrl on his accurate guess of 20/25)

Thanks for reading!

Update: here's the backs I was talking about. Notice the McGwire stats start at 1989. Meanwhile, Billy Williams' back crams in a bunch of wonderful tiny stats: