I went down to the card show

On Thursday, this song randomly came on and at first I could have sworn the guy sang, "I went down to the card show." Haha. It's really "I went down to the crossroads" but it just goes to show you that when you've got a card show on the horizon, the anticipation builds and permeates your thoughts. When you're a card collecting nut like us lot, few events get us staring at the calendar more than an upcoming card show.

Nice haul today, and I'll be showing it off over this coming week. Just a quick post today to get us on the board.

A nice lot of Birthday Boy, Ken Griffey, Jr. Last I counted my Junior PC, I was on the cusp of knocking him into my Hundred Card Club, so I figured a card show on his birthday is probably the perfect time to take care of it. The top row cost me 71¢ each, including his '89 Topps Traded RC I don't think I ever owned, if you can believe it. Plus a #'d card (384/999), and a black parallel from his brief White Sox stint. The bottom row were cheap fillers. I still need to do a final count, but I'm pretty sure I've past 100 different Griffey cards now.

Next is the other Birthday Boy today, Stan Musial. He's accompanied here by a similar McCovey. Sorry these pictures suck.. it's a busy weekend and I'm just trying to bust out this post ASAP.

Here are the backs. These also ran me 71¢ a pop.

Finally for today.. I actually bought this card last show-- Or at least I thought I did. It was missing when I reviewed my haul, so I was thinking maybe I had put it back. But today as I was putting the cards I bought onto my passenger seat, I saw this guy had fallen down on the side of the seat and had been hanging out there for a month, luckily still safe in his toploader. Nice! These diecut acetate "Hall of Nothing" (LOL, update: I mean "Hall or Nothing")inserts are pretty cool, so I was happy to find the Gwynn.

That's all for today. Hope you're all having a nice weekend!

My new best Tony Gwynn card

I just harpooned a white whale of mine! I've gushed about my love for 2004 Topps Retired autos since the dawn of this blog, with the /25 refractors being my most favoritest of always ever. My ultimate longterm collecting goal is to get all 76 in the checklist. I landed a big one now with Tony Gwynn. I've still got some daunting names left to go (Aaron, Banks, Musial, Ripken), but the Gwynn refractor was always on the top of my list. Back in June, I finally landed the non-refractor version, but I was still hoping to find the refractor someday. I had never even seen one anywhere before, but it popped up a couple weeks ago in an auction bundled with some other Retired autos I already had. Perhaps fortunately for me, the seller somewhat mislabeled the title, which may have kept the price down, though it still ended at a pretty penny. Mr. Padre is my top PC guy, with my Gwynn PC easily being my largest player collection. And this card is now the crowning jewel of my Gwynn collection. --Or at least neck-and-neck with his Hawaii Islanders minor league card.

You know what I like to do when I get a big card I'm super excited about.. Yep, I go nuts giving it a lavish photoshoot and then post a ridiculous number of pictures. Enjoy...

I have a self-imposed rule that once I upgrade to the refractor of a Topps Retired auto, I have to get rid of the non-refractor auto (Recouping a little helps me feel better about how much money I spend on them. And these days I try to stay away from anything except the refractors since I'll probably upgrade down the line anyways). But I make exceptions for top PC guys, so I'll probably hang onto both Gwynns for now.

Thanks for swinging by.

A handwritten blogpost

Keywords: Julio Franco Donruss buyback, Frank Thomas 2001 Topps Archives Reserve Rookie Reprints 1990, Carlos Dunlap manufactured letter patch football,  Tribute Minnie Minoso auto autograph, handwritten post

Bunting for a hit

The latest hardcopy customs I've whipped up aren't exactly customs of my own creation, rather I printed out a few cool Bunt digital cards I liked. That's right: Fake cards of fake cards!

I'm among those who scoffs at seriously collecting digital cards like with Bunt. But truth be told, I don't own a smartphone, so I've never actually used the app. Maybe once I eventually get a smartphone, I'll give it a shot. Some of the cards they come up with look pretty good. But I think it's crazy when people pay hundreds of dollars for a jpg of a baseball card. I mean, dude, just save a copy of it on your hard drive for free! But if Topps can find people into that sorta thing, God bless 'em.

This Paul Goldschmidt insert card is basically a common. You can easily find it on eBay for like 99¢ and free shipping (ha, can you imagine being charged shipping for a digital item?!) But I thought it was a cool looking card, and Goldy is one of my favorite active guys to collect, so I figured add this one to my PC. The question for me is do I include this in my official count. Probably won't be considered a true card, rather one for the "other" column like a bobblehead or a Starting Lineup figurine (if I were to actually keep records on my collection, which I do not.)
(UPDATE: Turns out there do exist real copies of this insert as tough pulls in 2015 Update. Oh well. This is a fine placeholder until/if I end up with a real one.)

I used the real back, too, though these stats and points don't mean anything to me. I just added the part at the very bottom. I can't quite call this a "reprint," so I called it a "print." Gave it a nice 1/1 hand-numbering for kicks.

Now, this Andrew McCutchen digital card actually sold for $227.50. My net cost to create this physical representation was considerably less, it goes without saying.

Props to the designer for a sharp looking card. One thing I discovered during this project is that Bunt cards are a bit stubbier than real cards, so I had to add some space at the tops and bottoms of each card in order to get the standard real-world card dimensions of 2.5" x 3.5".

I think this digital card was a 1/1, so I guess it's fitting mine is also a 1/1. If I were ever inclined to make more copies of this card, well, I could take a page from card companies and play the parallel game: I could leave future printings unnumbered, or perhaps hand-number them with a different color ink, which would then make this the "red ink parallel" 1/1.

This Mike Trout "Diamond VIP" digital insert also sold in the hundreds on eBay. I didn't do a perfect job with cutting my custom version here, but it's good enough for me. It ain't like I'm sending these to PSA to get graded; just a "for fun" item to throw into my collection.

From looking at these 3 cards I've selected, it's apparent that I'm drawn to cards with lots of blue in the design, with an astronomy theme to it. What can I say, I've always been a fan of looking up into the clear night sky.

Another 1/1 red ink parallel.. the only one in the world! LOL

So there you have it. If any of you guys really want one for yourself, I could crank out "parallels" to trade, so let me know. But I don't think I'd be brazen enough to try to sell these on eBay. I imagine Topps would not take kindly to that. Then again, counterfeits are rampant out there, as I talked about the other day, without Topps seeming to take any action against it. Basically, seems as long as you're not getting unlicensed cards onto Walmart shelves, it's not a big enough deal for Topps or MLB to worry about. Still, though, I don't want to tempt fate stepping on toes.. so I'll keep these in the narrow confines of my collection, and possibly a small handful of interested trading buddies.

So in conclusion, it's nice to be able to take digital cards that catch my eye and turn them into tangible cards to add to my collection. I don't plan to go nuts with these going forward, but if I stumble upon a cool digital card of a guy I like, I'll probably save it to my computer, and if I really like it, I'll make it into a custom card to file away in the respective PC. They're not perfect, but they almost look and feel real.

Sentimental Sundays: McDonald's pioneered Superfractor technology in 1978

Once again, it's time to take step back in time to my childhood.

Here's my school pencil box from circa 2nd Grade...

Saw action in 1986 or 1987, probably. It currently stores a bunch of various crap from my youth. This treasure trove could probably keep me stocked on material for Sentimental Sundays posts through 2016 if I really stretched it!

Here's the inside of the lid. Lots of neat stickers: puffy Casper, "manufactured patch" penguin in a tux, scratch-n-sniff lilacs (?), Kool-Aid Man, etc.

Ed (up by puffy Hong Kong Phooey) is a popular name in my family, with 4 generations of Eds. If I ever had a son, I'd be tempted to make him Ed the Fifth to keep the line going, though I'm not an Ed so I'm not sure that's legal. I don't think my Cousin Eddie (The 4th) is going to sire children at this point, as he's pushing 50. At least he's out of prison and apparently doing fine now, though I haven't seen him in over a decade.

Check out that Ronald McDonald sticker (© 1978) where he's happily holding up a shiny refractor 2x4. It's the same "spinning wheels" effect that is the basis for superfractors, though without the gold tint. I thought it was funny to realize that whole thing was showing up as a free Kids Meal toy twenty years before superfractor cards were a thing. We were promised jetpacks.

Diving into the box.. For a brief period in my youth between "caring about baseball cards" and "caring about girls" was a "caring about comic books" phase. I guess this Superman pin from 1993 was in there. Truth be told, I never actually saw the kid. One of these days I'll do a post or two on the few comic books I still have.

My first job was working at Kmart,. Stuck around there for over a year (May 1995-June1996). It wasn't too bad.. straightening shelves and rounding up carts in the parking lot. The worst part was probably apologizing to people when the good stuff on sale that week was all sold out. The location has since closed down; I think it's now a KOHL'S last I checked. It's been nearly 20 years, but I've still got my old name tag. Those "Ask Me! I Can Help!" cards are good for a free coffee. Wonder if they'd still be honored at this point.

Here's proof of registration from my first car, a 1990 Mitsubishi Gallant. White. It was a decent car.. a hand-me-down from my mom. My 2nd card was also a Gallant, also from my mom, a 1994 Gallant. That car served me well, too.

I know I've bragged on the blog once or twice before that I was a sprinter track star back in high school. Ah, glory days! They'll pass you by in the wink of a young girl's eye. My school pencil box held a nice little pack of clippings with track meet results from the local newspaper. That afternoon verses Grossmont HS was a good one for me, winning both the 100 and 200, and I'm pretty sure I was on the victorious 440 relay team too. This was '94 or '95.
"Grossmont" is a confusing word because my HS district was called Grossmont Union High School District, and the JC I went to was called Grossmont College.. but Grossmont High School was a totally different thing. Also, my first girlfriend went to Grossmont HS. I remember hanging out on the vacant campus on the weekend with her and my bud Doug and his 1st GF Leevie.. good times. But by this time we had broken up, so I suppose that made the victory over them all the more sweet.
Looking it up right now, turns out Grossmont HS has had a few notable grads. Frank Zappa, for one. Wow, a musical legend! Also weed comedian Doug Benson and "Joe Isuzu" David Leisure. As far as baseball players, their best known guy is probably Barry Zito, but looks like he didn't graduate from Grossmont, just went there for a while then transferred. I remember them for having a pretty strong track team, so I'm sure to spank them so well was great for us.

Great song, with its message renewing itself far too often, such as in the wake of the recent tragedy in Paris.

That's all the nostalgia for today. Back with more next time. Thanks for being here!

Listia's got me shaking my head again

Gah, Listia these days, am I right? I've been pretty quiet on there recently. The inflation on credits has skyrocketed, yet as a seller, 499 is still the maximum opening bid without being penalized. So it's basically "feast or famine" on there now, with everything either selling for thousands of credits, or barely any at all.

The only thing I've won in the past two months was a 3-card lot for 100 credits.. which would convert to like 2¢ or so in money. What transpired was amusing enough to where I thought I'd get a post out of it. (And later I'll get to the '57 Ted Williams above.)

I'm no grammar Nazi, but this punctuation-challenged message gave me a chuckle. I wonder if she talks like William Shatner in person.

The cards showed up a few days later, each one in a separate envelope. Let me remind you it was one auction that included 3 cards, and I won it for the opening bid of 100 credits (2¢ or so) and free shipping. I felt bad for the lady spending nearly 2 bucks on postage, envelopes, and cute kitten stickers. But hey, if that's what she wants to do, so be it. She has nice penmanship (though I'm not sure why she felt the need to put the zip codes in parenthesis).

The cards arrived safely in sleeves apparently made from cut 9-pocket pages, wrapped in a piece of yellow paper. Perhaps a piece of cardboard would have been nice to help prevent bending, but otherwise I don't have much complaints about packaging. A lot of times getting cards from Listia from a lady seller will result in the card being tossed loose into an envelope. (Sorry if that sounded sexist; plenty of guys are bad at shipping cards too, but the ratio seems to be greater with females, as the majority of them aren't very familiar with the hobby.)

I didn't care about the Jody Reed or Glenn Hubbard cards; this Ken Caminiti UD Vintage was my sole interest in the lot. I very well may already have this one, I didn't bother to check. But for just 100 credits, who cares? Hopefully I needed it, though. I'll have to sort my Cammy PC one of these days and find out.


Changing gears now, there's a guy on Listia lately who has been selling a ton of homemade counterfeits-- OH, EXCUSE ME, I MEAN "REPRINTS."

"It looks 100% original and It does not have 'Reprint' stamped anywhere on it." 
Um, that's what's known as a counterfeit, asshole.

Look, I like making my own cards, too, and have even attempted (without much success) to make a buck off them, but I definitely disagree with making counterfeits. Even if I made a "reprint" of a card, I'd be sure to at least make a notation somewhere on the back distinguishing it from an authentic specimen. Shit like this is damaging to the hobby. I know he makes it clear in his auctions that it's a reprint, but what's to stop the person who wins it from turning around and trying to resell it without mentioning it's a fake? If they get busted they can plead ignorance, but maybe they'll get lucky and find a sap who gets fooled. Or maybe it wouldn't even be malicious, but like.. down the road, the guy who buys the card dies and his family sells the card under the impression it's legit? It's just a bad idea all around to make counterfeits, polluting the marketplace with fakes.

This guy makes a ton of counterfeits from all years and sports, which he likes to proclaim as "Stunning & Mint" in the item's title for the modern cards he copies. He gets cute artificially aging his vintage counterfeits, like the Williams and Mays above, sometimes overdone to a comical degree.

But yeah, I really have a problem with people doing this shit. I've rambled here in the past about how homemade cards will be the death of the hobby, and my fear definitely hasn't lessened. It's tempting to try reporting this guy or try reasoning with him or something so he'd hopefully knock it off. But that's probably futile so I'll instead just block him.. out of sight, out of mind. I'm sure stuff like this is on eBay too, it's just easier to stumble upon in the smaller pond that is Listia.

Anyways, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. What are your thoughts on all this?

The thrilling conclusion of my 2015 Pro Debut box

Yesterday I showed off some base card highlights from my 2015 Topps Pro Debut hobby box. I saved the good stuff for last, so now let's check out the hits and inserts.

My promised 2 autos weren't amazing, but seem solid enough:

Tyler Danish didn't allow an earned run in 94 innings pitched in his senior year of high school, and thanks to that performance, got drafted by the White Sox in the second round of the 2013 draft. He glided up the ladder his first couple pro seasons, but 2015 saw his WHIP balloon to 1.655 in Double A. Hopefully he can right the ship in 2016.

Jack Flaherty's card features a rare "pitcher on the basepaths" photo, and what appears to be a questionable photoshop job. One plus to this product is the real photos, as opposed to the 'shopped prospects found in Bowman and Prizm Draft. But I guess some doctored shots get in, too.

Anyways, Jack was named something like the California high school player of the year in 2014. He had a letter of intent for University of North Carolina, but signed with the Cardinals after they selected him 34th overall in the 2014 draft, with their compensation pick for failing to re-sign Carlos Beltrán. He's done pretty well as a pro so far, striking out 125 in 117.2 innings with just 35 walks. The back of the card also mentions he's also formidable base-stealing threat, which might justify the photo selection.

So, while not terribly exciting, those are a couple promising young pitchers to pull. It sucks that they're sticker-graphs, but what are you gonna do?

Distinguished Debuts is the most common insert set, seeded 4 per box. These would have probably looked nice if they were refractors, but alas, nothing shiny in this product.

Promo Night Uniforms are seeded 2 per box. That first one is kinda boring.. Italian Heritage night or something. But as a Star Wars fan, I was happy to pull that second one. It's not the best looking uniform, but it's supposed to be a Chewbacca getup.

My two promised memorabilia cards disappointed. When I pulled the first one, I was like, "Alright, whatever, it's kinda cool I guess." But when I pulled the second one, I was like, "Aw, come on! Another one of these relic cop-outs?" These are worthless unless maybe you pull one of the serial numbered parallels, of which these are not. I would have much rather pulled one of the "Fragments of the Farm" relics with like infield dirt and pieces of chairs and stuff. Even a regular jersey swatch from a fringe prospect would have been better than a manipatch thing like these. These two guys, Sean Newcomb and Braden Shipley, are fine, I guess, but nobody too exciting. What's up with all 4 of my promised hits being pitchers? Boo. As Tony L. always says, there's no such thing as a pitching prospect. For every Kershaw, there are 10,000 Van Poppels.

Here's the solitary parallel I pulled from my box. That's right, just one goddamned parallel. Pro Debut really needs to step up their parallel game. Give me color! Give me shininess! Give me value! If I were to do a comparison with the other prospect product I've opened in the past year, Prizm Draft, Prizm would definitely get the nod with lots of colorful, serial-numbered parallels in every box. On-card autographs are another big plus Prizm has over Pro Debut. But as for base cards, Panini once again craps the bed, overdoing that "steel floor plate" look, and of course the sterilized, logoless photos. So decent photos and base design are what help put Pro Debut ahead. I just wish they had on-card autos and more, prettier parallels.

But back to this guy..when I pulled this A.J. Reed gold parallel #'d 44/50, I didn't think much of it since his name didn't ring a bell. But then I looked up his stats and saw he led all of the minor leagues with 34 home runs this past season, with a .340 average to boot. So this might turn out to be a pretty decent pull if he can continue mashing like that.


But what really saved my box from being a dud...

Sweet cyan printing plate! These Distinguished Debuts plates are seeded 1:1884, making it somewhat of a case hit. Cole Tucker is touted as Pittsburgh's shortstop of the future. At only 19, he's probably still got a few years to develop, but he's off to a fine start, batting .293 with 25 stolen bases last season in A ball.

My non-PC Pirates typically walk the Bob Walk plank, and chances are Cyan Cole here will meet the same fate, but for now I'm just going to enjoy it and nuzzle it to my bosom. It's nice to start replenishing my Pirate stash after recently cleaning it out on Matt after he won my recent contest. If you missed his posts showing off the booty, check them out here (the Bob Walk customs I made) and here (the rest).

Usually you want your cards to come out of packs nice and pristine, but I think printing plates are an exception. They're much cooler when they're beaten up with signs of wear.. it really makes it clear the plate saw a lot of action in the card-making process. Kind of like how it's cool to pull a dirty jersey relic. So yeah, I was stoked to see this plate come out of the pack with lots of stains, scratches, and splotches on it. Very cool.

That's it for this break. Thanks for reading!