Cleveland Rocks

Of the 4 remaining teams this postseason, I guess I'm rooting for the Guardians to go all the way, though really I'll be happy as long as it isn't the Dodgers again.

I happen to have PCs going for 4 guys on Cleveland's current roster-- which seems like a lot since I don't collect a ton of active players-- so in the wake of their impressive comeback in the ALDS, I figured I'd get a post out of showing off some highlights.

That division series had me torn. On one hand, Chicago is my ancestral homeland, so wanting their teams to win is kinda embedded in my DNA. But Cleveland has a guy named Gavin. A pretty good Gavin, in fact! This past season, Williams became the first Gavin to lead the league in strikeouts, with his 248 pacing the AL. He's kept it going in the postseason, stepping up to carry a taxed Cleveland pitching staff.

Turns out I've got 3 Gavin Williams autos in the PC, all unlicensed Leaf stickergraphs. I'm pretty sure I've taken a run at a 1st Bowman auto or two, but couldn't walk away with one as of yet. At least the autos I've got are nice and shiny. They've also got serial numbers I like...

A pair of Christmas Cards and the first-off-the-line of 99.

As far as fully-licensed highlights from the PC, these funky rookie refractors are pretty sharp.

The refraction continues as we move now to Jose Ramirez, the heart and soul of Cleveland's lineup.

Looks like he's another guy whose signature changed after their rookie year, speeding it up after the novelty of signing stacks of your cards wears off. The 2014 Chrome RC auto was acquired as part of a blockbuster blogger trade back during the glory days of exchanging cards with other bloggers. It's the card I was most looking forward to when thumbing through the PC. And on the other hand, I had to do a double take when I came across the 2018 Stadium Club auto, as I had completely forgotten that I even had it, as if a friendly gremlin slipped it into the PC at some point over the years.

My childhood stint in the hobby ended in mid '93, and I have warm memories of pulling Topps Gold parallels while ripping packs of 1993 Topps, so I wanted to score myself one when Archives paid tribute a few years back. I think they were case hits or something, so I didn't bother going after a bunch or anything, but was happy to land this Ramirez for a good price.

Austin Hedges shares catching duties for the Guardians, sticking around in the game over a decade now by virtue of being a good dude and his skills handing pitchers, despite not having much luck with the bat. To his credit, 2026 saw him reach a career-high .247 batting average. Since he came up as a Padres prospect around the time I had returned to the hobby, I've ended up with a lot of Austin Hedges cards over the years. Autos here are a sweet Leaf Valiant card and a signed Topps Pro Debut, the later probably coming from Zippy.

A few more highlights from the Hedges PC. 

Gotta admit I kinda forgot Rhys Hoskins was on Guardians this year, but yeah, he was in the 1B/DH mix for Stephen Vogt's squad most of the year before an injury in August knocked him out of the lineup. He hasn't been as effective/fun of a player since the ACL injury wiped out his 2023 season, but I've still got a solid PC built during his early years in Philly. Another Zippy-Zappy TTM auto featured here. (btw, I need to post about a couple incoming PWEs from him, plus one from TLC.. thanks, guys!)

A variety of Panini cards I thought were worth taking a picture of.

Some neat Topps miscellany. The '70 Topps is a cloth parallel. The orange refractor is #/25 (sadly not #12). As the Ginter RC mini notes on the stamped sleeve, it's a glow-in-the-dark parallel (case hit).

And some more Topps hits, including the lone fully-licensed auto I've got of Rhys. It's numbered 66/99, which is extra fun because it's the same upside-down.

Let's close with the team's skipper. Stephen Vogt isn't a PC guy of mine, but he's in my collection thanks to a 12/25 Ginter mini that a reader kindly reached out to me about back in 2017.

He's got his work cut out for him, but wishing Mr. Vogt the best of luck finally bringing a championship back to The Cleve.

cardart check-in, fall '26

Welp, yet another Padres season ends without tasting that sweetest victory. Sure would love to see my favorite team win the World Series within my lifetime. Just once is fine, damn it! I mean, we all gotta go sometime and I ain't getting any younger. (RIP hiflew) Maybe next year, I guess...

My CardArt activities have cooled with the changing season as I've spent more time on TCDb of late-- Really my goal is generating trips to the post office (dog walks), be it eBay sales or TCDb trades. But yeah, I figured I'd show off some of the stuff I've whipped up since last time.

My latest thing is having fun with Billy Ripken's 1988 Topps card. Just made this pair of partially-vulgar 1/1s today.

Nolan Ryan has lots of great, cheap cards to tweak.

Hey, are you ready for some football?

A full page of Barry Sanders.

That last one is a glowfractor. Yes, Chris, we finally did it!

I've long dreamt of a card that could both refract light and glow in the dark, so this is a special one for me. Hopefully that video loads ok and lets you see it in action.

Now prepare your mind for 1991 Donruss like you've never seen it before. (Do it! Prepare your mind! For your own well-being!)

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Can you imagine Donruss packing out case-hit parallels like that in their '91 boxes? They would have left Topps and Upper Deck in the dust and probably ended up with the monopoly today. ha
But yeah, it's fun taking '91 Donruss out of its familiar colorings to kinda get a new look at an old card.

A break from the overproduction era here with a modern Heritage league leaders card that I cropt into a mini. Last week I sent a couple similar little guys to Night Owl, so hopefully this isn't spoiling the surprise. In my note I stressed he didn't need to send me anything back or feature the mailing on his blog since it was just a PWE of '87 Fleer commons for his low-priority setbuild, and a couple stray cardart Dodgers I had sitting around for him plus a couple Kershaws minis made shortly before the above, but nothing all that cool or interesting to blog about. Still though, fun minis, right?

I did a lot of messing with '89 Topps All-Star cards over the late summer.

I know 1989 Topps is as junky as junk gets, but that makes for iconic, cheap cards to creatively modify as transformative art or whatever.

I made a handful of sales over the summer, but everything in this post is still in-hand as of publishing. One of the Barry Sanders cards is already on eBay with a few watchers, maybe a Nolan also, and I'll likely list other cards in this post for sale soon/eventually/again, though I prefer to trade for cards, so per usual, feel free to reach out inquiring about anything in this post, or even to discuss commissioned stuff I could make of your favorite player along these lines. I've been thinking about soliciting my CardArt on the TCDb forums one of these days, maybe finding a couple bored player collectors looking to kick up their stagnant PCs with something different.

Basketball gets worked in thanks to Shaq here. Precious Metal Gems might be financially out of reach, but these are nearly as cool for a fraction of the price! I've got history with this 1994-95 Collector's Choice card, scoring a (buyback?) autograph way back in my days of getting cards on Listia. (I would link to the post where I showed it off, but it's a sad one because Tom Petty had just died.) So when I was hunting for an inexpensive Shaq card to whip up some homemade parallels of, the Collector's Choice was in fact this collector's choice.

That's probably enough for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Topps Retired Triad: October Edition

A few more pickups from over the summer I've been meaning to show off on the blog.

Steve Garvey still has some ardent collectors out there, including the cardsphere's own gcrl, but I was able come out on top when the dust settled for this '05 Retired refractor auto. Now I just need an '03 refractor of his to upgrade the base auto I've got and I'll be done chasing Garvey.

This post has an "October Edition" gimmick going since we're at the start of the division serieses, so I'll remind you Garvey was no stranger to postseason baseball, first with his Dodgers battling the Yankees, and then helping San Diego make it to their first World Series in '84.

Tragically, the Padres were mauled by the Tigers that year. But in a tiny blip of karmic retribution, I got this '03 Lance Parrish-- Detroit's backstop for that most-recent championship season of theirs-- for a good price, in part because the seller had it listed as a base auto, though the hint of shine in the picture had me suspicious and the serial number on the back confirmed it was a refractor parallel.

Solid career.

Printing plates aren't really part of my Retired setbuild, but if I stumble upon one cheap-- or less-cheap but a PC guy of mine-- I might take a run at it. The sticker auto slapped on a plate is kinda weird, but whatever.

No career stats on the back, no surprise, so you can't marvel at all the tiny text from his long career, but Jesse Orosco is still the all-time leader in Games Pitched. He won it all with the '86 Mets and '88 Dodgers. He also pitched for both the Brewers and Padres, who face each other in the postseason for the first time tonight. Let's go, Padres. Why not, right?

Ok, that was 3 cards, which will usually close out a "triad" post, but I snapped pix of a couple bonus cards to include here.

My 2005 Topps Pristine Legends refractor set is still 99.29% complete. I don't include the relics in my quest, but again, if the price is right and/or it's a dude I collect, I might end up with it.

I don't have to mention the October relevance here since this one does it for me.

Finally, here's a big get for my 2004 Chrome black refractor set that's still crawling along to the finish line (98.15% complete).

Chase Utley played in the World Series three times in his career, winning in 2008. I was kinda sad to see the Phillies lose the Wild Card series the other day. I still consider the Braves a secondary favorite team of mine, but I'd love to see Don Mattingly finally get a ring.

But anyways, should be a fun month of baseball. And with the lockout on the horizon, it could be the last MLB action for a long time, so enjoy it!

1998 Bowman Chrome rookie reprint refractors

Here's a refractor set I completed over the summer and have been meaning to feature on the blog: 1998 Bowman Chrome rookie reprint refractors. I even laid all the cards out for a big overview photo.

It's 50 reprints celebrating Bowman's 50th anniversary, featuring both their vintage era (1948-1955) and Topps' modern reboot (1989-). Odd-numbered cards were inserted in Series One, while even-numbered cards were in Series Two. Base reprint inserts had 1:12 odds, while refractors were 3x tougher to pull at 1:36. In addition to the front's rainbow shine, refractor parallels are notated by a big "R" on the back.

Bowman Chrome had just started the year before in 1997, which followed the debut of Topps Chrome in 1996, so these 1998 cards are the "1st Refractor" of most of the old-timers like Satchel Paige. This particular Paige was a card show pickup from 2015 that I plucked out of the PC once I was closing in on completion... before happily finding a replacement for the PC in a cheap lot soon after wrapping up the set.

Willie Mays had just received the full Commemorative Reprint Insert Set treatment by Topps in 1997 (which also included his Bowman cards), so that '51 Bowman Mays was on its second reprint refractor in as many years. Other than that, I don't think any of these original cards had seen refraction before. But Topps soon showed they weren't too concerned about redundancy. Bowman would go back to the rookie reprint well again in 2001 (vintage era only-- including 6 of the 8 such reprints included in '98), 2002 (modern era only-- most of which had been reprinted in '98), and then the flood of "sapphire" reprints in 2012. All the reprinting seems to have cooled down since Fanatics took over.

But anyways, I think these '98 refractors look pretty good. I didn't risk taking them out of their sleeves for the pic, so you've occasionally got some sticking-to-the-sleeve action going on like with the Bagwell, sorry.

The cards mostly ran me from a couple bucks to a few bucks. I probably had to go double-digits a couple times for highly-collected guys like Griffey and Jeter.

Lots of big names from the 90s. Brad Fullmer had some hype at the time, but shook out with the shortest career of the bunch.

Centering can sometimes be an issue with these, but at least there's no "hulking" (that's just a reflection on Manny's face). The Roberto Clemente refractors from earlier that year (inserted in 1998 Topps) are prone to hulking, so it would seem Topps was still getting the hang of making Chrome cards, narrowly figuring it out in time for these Bowman reprints.

The inserts reprint cards through 1996 Bowman, which makes sense with Bowman Chrome debuting in '97.

And there's an alternate group shot to close out on. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're all enjoying playoff baseball. Go Padres!

Vintage Frankenset Page 7

Back in the desolate days of 2020, I got the idea for a frankenset to give purpose to many of the random old cards that didn't really have a solid "home" in my collection. Plus, filling slots is a good excuse for me to check out neat old card designs I might otherwise miss. The priority of the project eventually slid to the backburner, but I still occasionally fill empty slots and try to keep my streak alive of featuring one completed page on the blog each year.

My Vintage Frankenset has 3 rules for entry:
- Cards must have been released prior to 1981.
- Must fit in a standard top-loader.
- No flagship Topps baseball allowed. (I have a different project for that.)

We're up to page 7, covering card #s 55 through 63.

The page I featured last year was heavy on hockey, and this year again lacks in sport diversity, with two-thirds of the page being baseball cards. It doesn't bother me that much, but in a perfect world, each page would consist of a robust mix. But the page before only had one baseball card, and the next page only has one baseball card, so I'll let it slide that this page has a bunch.

Now let's take a closer look at each card.

1971-72 Topps #55 Pete Maravich

Despite all the baseball, basketball steals the show thanks to this jewel of the frankenset. It's Pistol Pete Maravich's second Topps card, and the first standard-sized card, with his rookie being a pesky tall-boy. Snatching up this and a cache of other nice basketball cards out-of-place from a sub-dollar discount bin might rank as the peak highlight from my days attending the monthly card show back in the twenty-teens.

Legend.

1963 Post #56 Don Mossi

From one legend to another. When it comes to baseball commons, Don always sticks out from the herd.

This is the second Post card in the binder, following Roger Maris back on page 1. Unlike that one, there's no aftermarket artwork on the back of Mossi, just a blank canvas.

 

1951 Bowman #57 Alex Kellner

Another staple from my card show-faring days was gobbling up any old Bowman I'd come across in the ~dollar bins. 1951 Bowman is a beautiful set, though the idea of completing it is a nonstarter for most of us thanks to the rookie cards of Mantle and Mays bringing about financial complications.

The paper loss makes it tricky to follow the narrative, but it mentions Alex Kellner won 20 games in 1949, only to then lose 20 games in 1950. And his 14 loses in 1951 again lead the league, but he stuck around throughout 50s, calling it quits after his elbow crapped out in '59.

1960 Fleer #58 Charlie Gehringer

A couple Cooperstown residents in a row now, starting with Charlie Gehringer.

These vintage old-timer cards are sometimes hard to wrap my head around. Gehringer's 1949 HOF election was only 11 years prior. He lived until '93, so he likely autographed many copies of this card in his later years.

1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series #59 - 1961: Yankees vs. Reds

Cartoon version of Whitey Ford gets the prime center pocket. I'm jealous of you guys who have all or most of these great Laughlin cards. I'll reluctantly settle for having a smattering of them in my vintage frankenset.

I can't always remember World Series winners off the top of my head, but 1961 is easy to recall as a Yankee victory, capping off the 61 in '61 season for Roger Maris. This card back has some extra personality thanks to a focus-grabbing circle (printing flaw) between the first and second line.

1939 Play Ball #60 Schoolboy Rowe

This beauty was a surprise from Mark Hoyle, a great friend to the blog during the early years. It's a bummer he doesn't frequent the blogs much anymore. That reminds me I should probably try getting another "Where Are They Now?" post in the works soon.

Schoolboy Rowe was a 3-time All Star and a World Series champ with the '35 Tigers.

1979-80 O-Pee-Chee #61 Danny Gare

This is one of the most iconic designs in all of hockey cardom, largely in part to the Wayne Gretzky rookie in the set. I don't have The Great One, but I've got This One and a couple more later in the frankenset.

Searching YouTube, I couldn't find any 70s bank commercials featuring Danny Gare, but here's an Easter Seals commercial from '84:

(watch till the end)

1971 Topps #62 Altie Taylor

Altie Taylor brings some serious bad-assery to the page on its lone football card.

"A demon with the football"? Yep, bad-ass. Taylor was Detroit's career rushing yardage leader for a while before his mark was bested by Dexter Bussey, Billy Sims, and then decisively by Barry Sanders.

1940 Play Ball #63 Pete Coscarart

It's crazy that I've only got two Play Ball cards in my entire collection, and they're coincidentally both on page 7 of my vintage frankenset. Unlike the earlier Schoolboy that fell in my lap (Thanks again, Mark, wherever you are), this Pete Coscarart is a card that I specifically targeted and acquired years back. 

Coscarart was the first guy from SDSU to play in the majors. I don't collect guys who went to my college nearly as strongly as I collect guys who went to my high school, but I still wanted to get a playing-days card of the O.G.

And that wraps up page 7.

Another look at the cards together.

Page 8 is already completed, so 2027's post is all-systems-go. But then things get dicey after that. We're talkin' swiss cheese, buddy-boy. So I'll have to get active filling empty slots once 2028 rolls around, God willing, of course. Like, I know I'll never finish the frankenset (330+ cards?), but I guess the goal going forward is to at least keep up with a page every year I'm still around and blogging. So here's to many more completed pages!