2003 Topps Retired check-in (surprise Part 2)

Yep, more of these shiny cards from a simpler time! 

Reggie Jackson is pretty cool. He was my first "top guy I collect" back in the day and he's still one of my better PCs. This photo in direct sunlight brings out the scratches on the case, but still a nice looking card. And...

It's the Christmas Card! Holly jolly Jackson.

Reggie's former A's teammate Vida Blue is up next. It's a base auto that popped up on COMC cheap enough for me to snag, but I'm still hoping to find a refractor parallel one day.

It's crazy that Vida's 24 wins in 1971 didn't lead the league (thanks to Mickey Lolich's 25).

The last 2003 Topps Retired auto to feature today is a Kent Tekulve refractor I was happy to score a while back.

He pitched in a lot of games, including leading the league for the eventual champs in '79. 

Like Reggie and Vida, Teke also happens to be a solid "PC guy" in my collection. In fact, I've now completed the full Tekulve rainbow for this set:

They didn't include printing plates in '03 Retired (though '04 and '05 had plates included for both base and auto cards), so that's a true finished rainbow, not to brag! :)

The foundation work I mentioned in the previous post went just fine-- thanks for the well-wishes in the comments-- and it's nice to have the cardroom level. It was an expensive job, but in somewhat of a cosmic rebate, just this morning I noticed a thick roll of blue tape in the bushes near where the guys were working. Must have fallen back there and gotten overlooked. But yeah, it was kind of like finding hidden treasure for me because I use plenty of this stuff packing up cards and in various other household situations. Usually I reuse tape I receive from others, rationing it out carefully as needed, but now I can be a high-rolling blue-taper, snapping off endless blue without a care in the world! lol

Thanks for reading. Hope you're all keeping cool this hot weekend. Supposed to top out at 103° for us in Portland.

2003 Topps Retired check-in

My card collection is being taken up a notch today. Literally. The side of my house with the cardroom has been slowly sinking a tiny bit since we moved in nearly 4 years ago, and today the foundation is being worked on to secure the house and raise it back up a little. It's been a nagging concern of mine for a while now, so I'm glad it's being taken care of. But yeah, another expensive adventure in homeownership.

Anyways, here are some 2003 Topps Retired autographs I've picked up over the last while.

Sad that Orlando Cepeda passed away. Time marches on and we just keep losing stars from that classic 50s-70s era of baseball, and it's a bummer. But at least they live on in our collections.

"Last off the line" here, with number 25/25. Nice shot of his career stats. You can see a couple big injures leaving their mark.

Quick tangent, back in my early fascination with "Christmas Cards", I featured Orlando Cepeda's 2004 Retired 12/25 refractor auto in a blog series and gave it its own silly photoshop:

Rest in Peace, Baby Bull.

My "setbuild" of 2003-05 Topps Retired autographs leans strongly to the refractors, but I'll snag a base auto if the price is right, and that's what happened when this Bo Jackson popped up with a better buy-it-now price than I can remember seeing. I'll still hope to score a refractor someday, but it's a beautiful card even without the extra shine.

The rainbow behind Tug McGraw lets you know this one is a refractor. Love the smiley face Tug liked to add to his signature.

Last one for today is Jim Piersall, proudly refracting.

And it's the Christmas Card!

Thanks for stopping by.