Rod to the Rescue

Rod from Padrographs, who's also my NE Portland neighbor, kindly swung by last weekend with another box of miscellaneous cards for me. Instead of tucking into them right away, I set the box aside to have something to look forward to after a procedure I had scheduled the coming week (yesterday).

Yep, I finally got that colonoscopy I've been dragging my feet about. It's a big weight off my back and tiny polyp off my colon. I'll do the public service thing and recommend any of you guys over 45 who haven't gotten one yet to talk to your doctor about it and go ahead and do it if recommended.

On to the cards that were waiting for me on the other side. It's like a "the card show comes to me" situation when I get a box from Rod... mostly recent product, but plenty of variety. Typical "commons" mixed in there with other good cards that didn't stick in his collection, and occasionally special cards targeted for me.

 
I hope to eventually get around to the current Blog Bat-Around talking about our proudest hobby achievements, but these guys are in the conversation for me. A year ago, I was pretty stoked to complete the full run of Dan Walters cards on the market. Even a "completed" PC has room for additions when you're talking about aftermarket autos and buybacks (and sure, even customs and CardArt). This is only my second autograph of his, with the minor league card I got signed in-person as a kid being the other. This one features a bolder signature/pen, so that's a nice way to button the PC for now. And I continue to be damn near giddy over being the #1 ranked Dick Allen collector on TCDb, a streak that's been going since well before his tardy Hall of Fame induction. Thrilled to add to my total with this lime green Optic parallel from 2026 Donruss.

Since I don't rip new stuff these days, an influx like this from Rod really helps me keep up with the current wave of intriguing young players coming up. I kinda hate hearing about hot new rookies of whom I have no cards.. but when I have a card or two of the guy, boom, then I'm a stakeholder and I root for him. LOL. I've been like that since Kevin Maas.

Of course any box Rod gives me is likely to be heavy with our mutual favorite team, as was this one, with some highlights visible here.

And a nice stack of PC guys for me. Looks like I'm due for another big sort.

Lots more cards I could show, but I'll keep the post tight and close with this grand finale:

Christmas Card! Of a hot young player! I'm sure this would fetch a decent return on eBay, but Rod knows my affinity for cards numbered 12/25 and graciously let me have this one. Love it! Konnor Griffin is signed to be the Pirates shortstop through 2034. Injuries have blemished his rookie campaign, but the future looks bright for the 20-year old.

Again, huge thanks to Rod for being so incredibly generous with me over the years. And during a rough time like when I'm in the midst of a colonoscopy prep, it means even more. I help him out with occasional Photoshop requests when he needs a hand, and try to come up with fun Tim Flannery cardart so he doesn't leave empty-handed when I see him. But yeah, don't think I'll ever be able to really balance the scales there.

Thanks for reading, guys. 

[BTW, if you're having trouble finding new blog posts thanks to Blogger crapping out on their blogroll stuff, Bo mentioned a good alternative is the TCDb blog list, so you might want to bookmark that.]

Joe Namath commemorative refractor run

Are you ready for some football? Yep, it's pigskin season again. I pretty much checked out of football fandom when my Chargers ditched San Diego, but still have a soft spot for the old days of the sport. As a refractor enthusiast, a hobby focus of mine in recent years has been refractor reprints, where "old days" and "modern times" collide.

Refractor reprints are usually found in an insert set of rookie reprints, or occasionally "best year" type reprints, and every once in a while Topps would "commemorate" a retired great's career by reprinting all the main Topps cards from that player. By my count, they've bestowed the honor of a refractor reprint run just a dozen times across sports:

1996 + 1997 - Mickey Mantle
1996 - Joe Namath
1997 - Willie Mays
1998 - Roberto Clemente
1999 - Nolan Ryan
2000 - Hank Aaron
2000 - Johnny Unitas
2000-01 - Magic Johnson
2000-01 + 2001-02 - Mario Lemieux
2001 - Walter Payton
2001-02 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
2002-03 - Patrick Roy

I've been working on completing all of those, which is kinda nuts. I'm doing ok/well/done with most, except the hockey (I just have one representative from each) and the Mantles (there are a lot because they also reprinted most of his subset cards and Bowman cards).

So expect me to get a victory post out of it when I complete one of these runs. First up is Joe Namath.

 There's the shiny rookie reprint. This one might be a bit scuffed, but the price was right.

 Here's the late 60s into the early 70s. Not of lot of variety in the photo selection.

Namath didn't really have a long career. Only 10 cards in total here. By comparison, Johnny Unitas has 18 cards in his reprint set, and that's with no subset cards included. But yeah, the refractor reprints look good and are affordable at a couple/few bucks a pop. Unlike most other mid 90s refractors from Topps, I haven't noticed much "hulking" blotchiness with these. (Mantle, Mays, and Clemente refractor runs are not so lucky.)

I've also got Joe Namath's refractor in the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set-- slowly working on the football ref set (~22% complete) after stalling out with baseball (still 3 elusive needs left). Not a true reprint, it reimagines his 1969 Topps card with an action photo and squeezes in some extra border.

While I'm at it, here's my modest PC for Joe Namath. It's a passive pursuit, but I'm happy to add to it when I can. Namath's days as a stud QB were before my time, but he's always been a known legend, popping up in commercials and even a quick spot on the golden age of The Simpsons. 1972 Topps is the one vintage card of his I've got, plus a (paper) rookie reprint and a few modern cards that've fallen in my lap. 

I've got another refractin' rookie reprint of his within my complete set of 2001 Topps Archives Reserve football, though my in-progress master set still needs the Namath auto. Maybe I'll pony up for that someday or maybe not.

Welp, the Blogger reading list feed has been messed up for a couple days now, so who knows if this post will get many views, but hey, I'm glad you found it and gave it a read. Until next time!

ORANGE you VLAD I didn't forget this quest?

Years ago, I decided I might like to give a shot at rainbowing Vladimir Guerrero, Sr.'s last playing-days flagship Topps card, a "highlights" checklist featuring a sweet photo thanking the crowd during his swan song in Baltimore. I picked up the parallels that were readily available at the time and saved a search for the rest. And then I waited. I specifically remember doing that at my old house, so that means I've been waiting upwards of 6 years for this orange parallel to pop up:

Great looking color match. It's serial numbered to /190, which isn't all that low-numbered for modern cards, but these were a 5-per hobby factory set exclusive, so a good percentage of them are still stored away in sealed sets.

The seller neglected to mention it (and it wasn't really visible in the listing), but it's the "jersey number" "ebay 1/1", number 27 in the print run, so that was a happy surprise.

After securing the orange parallel, I went to update my saved search and noticed I didn't do a great job with it originally. I wasn't as well-versed using TCDb at the time, I guess, and didn't have everything I needed included in the search. Plus I was apparently under the impression there was a Toys R Us purple parallel to hunt down, but upon further research, those seem to be Series 1 only that year (Vlad is in Series 2).

But I was able to clean up my search and soon land a couple more needs taking this rainbow to a probably-good-as-it'll-get place that's serendipitously 9-cards deep, making for a kickass binder page or 9-card display.

 Haves:
base
gold [/2012]
gold sparkle
red [Target]
orange [/190]
black [/61]
blue [Walmart]
mini base
mini gold [/61]

 Needs: 
wood [1/1]
gold embedded [1/1]
platinum [1/1]
printing plates [1/1 x 4]
mini platinum [/5]
mini printing plates [1/1 x 4]

With only 1/1s (and a /5 mini) remaining for this 14-year old card, I probably won't be able to add any more to this rainbow ...unless of course we're talking homebrews of the CardArt variety.. and the thought has crossed my mind. I checked, and the "platinum" parallels that year are just a fancy name for "silver border" (which is itself just a fancy name for "grey border"), so other than the low serial number, they're not all that cool and I doubt I'll ever pony up for any of the 5 such minis or 1 such full-size, should any even pop up for sale. Also not much chance I'll ever wind up with the 1/1 wood, gold embedded, or any of the eight printing plates, either. But never say never, I suppose.

Even if my rainbow here isn't very likely to grow larger, I'm happy with it standing at an "even" page-worth of 9 cards and plan to display this up on the wall for a while. Let's hope basking in Vladimir's triumphant moment influences me to live my best life and take time for feeling gratitude. Thanks for stopping by.

Musically shaped cards

Music-themed die-cut cards! I don't try to collect them all, rather it's one of those type collections where I just try to get one representative from each set. 

There's the group pic of what I've currently got. Now let's do a chronological rundown.

1996 Leaf - Greatest Hits

Maybe there are obscure pre-war cards shaped like a flugelhorn or whatever, but best I can tell, Leaf (part of Donruss at the time) gave the world its first music-themed die-cut trading cards in May of 1996 with the release of their flagship set that included acetate inserts shaped to look like a piece of a compact disc. You'd expect an assortment of all-stars on the checklist, but nope, only Frank Thomas! There are a total of 8 "CD" cards featuring a different photo of the Big Hurt-- 4 available in hobby packs, 3 in retail, and 1 wrapper redemption-- and each is #/5000 on the back. 

(Tangent on cards that are also playable discs) 

Just the next year, Donruss took the concept further with 1997 Donruss VxP 1.0, a set that included 1-per-pack (6 different) rectangular CD-roms you could play on a computer disc drive. The discs featured a minute-long highlight reel of the player, a little trivia game, and if you got all 6 discs you could unlock a special screensaver thingy. I featured the Frank Thomas video in a 2017 post. As far as I can tell, the product was a flop for Donruss, and VxP never got a "2.0" release.

Upper Deck, however, ran with the concept of cards that doubled as playable discs. The first PowerDeck cards in 1997 were billed as "the revolutionary trading card for your audio CD player". UD only released 4 such special cards in that first wave and spread them out by sport: Griffey in baseball, Jordan in basketball, Aikman in football, and Rusty Wallace in racing. They aren't really shaped like CDs, though, rather they are card-shaped but with a hole in the middle that you have to punch out if you want to play the thing (featuring a brief audio interview). Later more common versions of PowerDeck cards were little CD-roms that you could play on a computer similar to the VxP card-discs. I think the final PowerDeck release was in 2000, which seems to be the last gasp of the "multimedia trading card" concept. (Upper Deck later messed around with thick cards that had a device embedded in them so you could watch a little video of the player on the card itself, but those were very limited [expensive to make] and didn't really catch on [batteries died quickly].)

All these actual discs aren't really in the scope of my music die-cuts collecting project, but I figured they were worth a mention.

 

1996 Leaf Studio - Hit Parade

August 1996, just a few months after the Frank Thomas "CD chunks", Leaf (again under Donruss at the time) was back with more musical die-cutting to unleash on the hobby. There are 10 of these Hit Parade inserts-- this time Frank is joined by 9 other players-- with the cards made to look like a vinyl record partially out of its sleeve, each #/5000 on the back. Fortunately I had a dupe in my Gwynn PC to dispatch to this group. The motif is partially continued on the back, with "Side Two" of the record shown; a nice touch. Apparently promo cards exist for all 10 of these, in case you really want to be a completist.

 

2001 Fleer Ultra - The Greatest Hits Of

Five years later, Fleer unapologetically made a very similar insert to the die-cuts from '96 Studio, but modernized the concept to a compact disc partially out of its case. There are 10 of these Greatest Hits Of inserts in 2001 Ultra, with each also having a #/10 Platinum Medallion parallel to chase. Fleer upped the theme by including song titles, but they didn't get too clever about it. "Takin' Care Of Business" is a BTO song everybody knows and fits fine for Ripken, but "Iron Man" would've been cooler. I don't think "Rip's Rhapsody" is referencing a real song but rather just a made-up track for Cal. (Is he a Queen fan? Gershwin, perhaps?)

2013 Panini The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary - Gold Albums

Panini's big Beach Boys set from 2013 includes die-cut Gold Albums (22 cards, seeded 1:24 packs), as well as similarly shaped On The Record inserts (30 cards, seeded 1:12). I had this one Surfin' USA dupe available-- I'm technically trying to build the set on TCDb, but I never find anyone to trade non-sport stuff there-- so it gets the call to represent the set. Both inserts also have two parallels, Artist's Proof and gold-foil-surfer-silhouette-in-the-corner, like pretty much every card in that product does.

Turns out Kiss put out Gold Album die-cut insert cards quite similar to this in 2001, designed like a gold record poking up out of the sleeve, though I only found out about them while researching this post. I'm currently only seeing them for like $20 a pop... haven't bitten. A music-themed die-cut for a band isn't as quirky as sports guys shoehorned into a musical theme, but I'll still try to score one of those Kiss die-cuts if one pops up cheap.

2022-23 Upper Deck Parkhurst Champions - Jukebox Heroes 

I think Chris the Collector was the one to give me a heads-up about these jukebox shaped hockey cards from 2022-23 Parkhurst Champions. I eventually landed the Alex Ovechkin, one of the few familiar names to me on the 20-card checklist. There are also tougher gold parallels, and some autographed versions. Even the printing plates got packed out, though those aren't die-cut.

2026 Bowman - Power Chords

And finally, here's the latest entry: Topps gets in on the music-shaped fun with die-cut cards in 2026 Bowman. These Power Chords refractor inserts are cool looking but common enough to where even a big name like Aaron Judge didn't set me back much. But of course it's 2026 and this is Fanatics we're talking about, so there are several parallels and autographs out there if you have the urge to drop more cash on guitar-shaped cards.

That's a wrap. Do you know of any other music-themed die-cut trading cards that I haven't mentioned here? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody.

Completed page of Sign Here cards

Yep, I've accomplished my silly goal of acquiring nine "sign here" cards. 

Here's the latest page added to the binder that houses fun stuff such as my old wallet cards and the Vagabond Binder pages. A full page of cards each used as a guide to let the subject pictured know exactly where the card manufacturer wants their autograph. Tino Martinez is probably the most recognizable name of the bunch. The lone football card is the only one that also includes a real signature. The Gavin Lux that originally started this side quest was in a magnetic one-touch for years, but I think his hobby standing has fallen off enough to let it roam in less-rigid situations now. Still, he gets the honor of holding down the center pocket, flanked by a couple bikini girls.

The page-completing pickup was this Chris Baker 2002 Bowman Chrome X-fractor. Baker pitched professionally for the entirety of the aughts, including over 100 games in AAA, but never made the show, so this didn't set me back much. It's not serial-numbered, but TCDb says it's got a print run of 250. I assume the other 249 have his real signature. Like with the Lux, it would have made more sense for the Topps employee to sacrifice a base auto to use as the example, rather than ruining a "nicer" refractor parallel. But hey, I shouldn't complain; cool for me to land an especially shiny card to finish the project.. or the page, at least.

As I've mentioned in the past, I've been planning to wrap up this minicollection with the completion of a page. And hey, to my credit, I did delete my old saved search... for a few days.. but then set new, narrower search as I was drafting up this post. Guess I just can't completely turn my back on these dumb pseudo signatures that were never meant for circulation. So perhaps I'll throw in a low bid when another one pops up cheap, but don't plan to chase them as hard going forward, and instead be happy with this one crazy page I've put together.

The Collector's Anniversary Celebration Extravaganza haul

You've probably heard that Chris over at The Collector is celebrating his big Anniversary Celebration Extravaganza. He's intending to wind down accumulation of sports cards but keep the blog going, and I wish him luck there. His blog is a favorite to read and he's a good dude. He's generous, too, running a celebration giveaway for the handful of readers savvy enough to grab a slot.

Here's an overview of my prize package, complete with a pack of penny sleeves and friendly letter.

Kicking off the cards with a selection of Joe Musgrove, highlighted by a pink refractor from '24 and a diamante parallel '26 He's been slow getting back from injury, but I'm hoping he's back on the mound soon.

Another current favorite Padre of mine, Jackson Merrill, in the house with some nice stuff here.

Part of the giveaway's entry process was to pick a player with a low-numbered jersey number which Chris would correlate to something later, and Jeter's 2 was the first to pop in my head, and now I've got a Chrome Anniversary card commemorating that choice. 

The Trenton Brooks 2025 Update base card was nice to find in there. That's a card I'm "trying to rainbow" (guy from my high school pictured playing for my favorite team), but you guessed it, I focused on the parallels and hadn't secured the base card yet, holding out hope that one would fall in my lap eventually. Sure enough!

It's kinda bittersweet seeing James Wood blossom into a star, seeing how San Diego traded him away in the big Juan Soto deal that ultimately didn't help the team win much. But I'll hoard all his cards I can get my grubby mitts on.

Since Fuji also had a slot in the giveaway, I had offered to renounce my claim to the Padres so as to simplify Chris' sorting process (and snag the Braves, who were "hot" in the Chrome Anniversary boxes Chris busted), but he was on top of things and didn't seem to have trouble finding enough Padres for both of us. But my "secondary team" the Braves had a few decent cards included as well.  

Here we've got some guys I collect who played for the White Sox and/or are named Gavin. I've got a Christmas Card of that Hoyt, so it's nice to get the base too. And glad to see Topps use that quirky "wearing shorts" photo of Goose on a card. I used that same pic on a custom a decade ago.

Lots of other good stuff from Chris filling up the box; pile pic here for brevity.

Some unopened packs! I might keep the '86 as-is for my Dick Williams PC, as long as Chris didn't have his heart set on me tearing into that cellophane. This post is long enough, so I'll hang on to the Brockum Rock Cards and the National Hockey Card Day packs for a rainy day rip.

But I definitely tore into the Mystery Pack. Let's reveal the mystery..

Autographs of Colton Cowser and Domingo Acevedo get top billing, plus a couple more solid Padres.

Non-baseball highlights for me include shiny Prizms of greats from yesteryear.

Modern players, too, with lots of guys named Jayden and Jalen and a few other dudes I'm somewhat familiar with despite not paying much attention to those sports these days.

I'm always a sucker for refractors.

And the rest! Oldest card in the lot is an oddball from 1980 of Babe Ruth dancing in the batter's box.

Well, that was a lot of fun to go through. Big thanks, Chris! Thrilled I was able to get in on the celebration. Congrats on 10 years of the blog and 40 years of collecting!

Quick incoming catch-up

Time to acknowledge a few more non-purchased additions to my collection.

 
I did a Time Traveling Trade PWE with Matt over at Diamond Jesters netting me a few setbuilding needs from the 70s plus an OPC Blyleven for the PC. Thanks, Matt!

-   -  --o

 
Surprise PWE of ladies from Johnny's Trading Spot. Gotta admit I didn't notice the theme when I originally thumbed through them, but displaying them together makes it clear these were originally for John's "Stars and Stripes" minicollection. USA! USA! 

Thanks, John! Always appreciated.

-   -  - -o

Since it's a light post, I'll throw in a little TCDb trade I did with a user deadhead11. Finally got around to entering my Rod Beck PC into the site. Didn't quite make the Top 10 in the rankings, but there's plenty of low-hanging fruit I need, such as this trio of commons, so it shouldn't be too hard to at least claw my way into the top 5. Gonna be tough to catch the top dog, though, that old sumbitch RollingThunder88 who currently has about twice as many Rod Beck cards as me. Ah well.

Thanks for swingin' by and have a great weekend, everybody.