Christmas in June: Don we now our Gaylord Perry

I collect any card serial numbered 12/25.. "Christmas Cards" as I call them. On the 25th of each month, I like to pull out something from this eclectic minicollection to feature on the blog.

June 25th. We're halfway to Christmas already.

When I stumbled back into being an active collector around 2012, I think my first "main guy" I decided to go after was Gaylord Perry. He just seemed like a fun player to collect, sticking around for lots of years, putting together a HOF career that included a stop in my hometown of San Diego, where he became the first player to have won the Cy in both leagues. I started drafting up a PC post of all my Gaylord cards many months ago, but got derailed when I realized I seem to have misplaced a few cards, notably a signed 1973 Topps card. I'm hoping my slowly-but-surely organization project will uncover them one of these days and I'll finally finish that post.

But yeah, I've got quite a few Gaylord cards now, including several autos. --perhaps even more than I need, to be honest. So a couple weeks ago when I was searching my collection for a decent Giants hit to offer ARPSmith to seal the deal to obtain his Bip printing plate, I was only slightly hesitant to offer him one of my certified Gaylord autos. The card, like probably over half of Perry's post-career cards, features him in his days in San Francisco. While a little sad to see that card go, no regrets in making that trade, and I've still got plenty of his autos in my collection.

The card I'm showing here today is also a "Giants" card (though unlicensed, so whitewashed generic), but I'd be much less willing to part with it thanks to its serial number.

So there you go: my Gaylord Perry Christmas Card. Thanks for reading and happy holidays!