Joy of a Completed Set: 1992 Leaf Black Gold

[Such a gut punch to lose Rickey unexpectedly. I figured he'd outlive us all.]

Here's a post I already had just about ready to go. Yep, I recently completed a set of 1992 Leaf Gold.. a.k.a. Black Gold. Took me a few years to accumulate them all, but wasn't too tough thanks to how overproduced baseball cards were back then. The gray-bordered base set doesn't do much for me, but with a black border and some gold foil, the design and photos come together to create works of art! I'm traditionally a "box guy", but this is the first full-size set that I've been compelled to page into a binder since returning to the hobby. (As a kid I paged up 1991 Classic Minors for some reason [so jam-packed with potential at the time!], but I think that's it other than maybe a few smaller sets like 1986 Donruss The Rookies and 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition.)

The final card to get was Griffey Jr, no big surprise, and I'm pretty sure that was the only card that cost me over a buck.

Here's another solid page I snapped a pic of. This was "my era", when baseball was a major part of my life as a kid and I'd pour over the Sunday sports section page where they listed everybody's stats up to that point.

Unlike the majority of handbuilt setbuilds I've undertaken, 1992 Leaf is a product I personally ripped a few packs of when it was new. So I suppose it makes it more personal for me since I felt the first-hand thrill of pulling a nice Gold parallel from a pack back when there was actually some buzz around it. If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that I would one day own a complete set of the parallels, I'd blow my young mind.. but of course I'd probably have more interesting things to tell myself. But still, it would be cool.

It's tricky photographing the foil, but one quirk with the set I'd like to touch on is how a small percentage of these cards have transitioned from black gold to "black silver". Here's a closer look:

I'd estimate maybe about 2% of these cards (counting my full set and another half-set of dupes) have had their gold foil become silver somehow. The backs of these cards also seem to have a weird splotchy fading thing going on:

"Silver" splotchiness on the right. ^

I'm pretty sure these didn't come out of the pack like this, but rather were unintentionally altered somehow over the decades since they were manufactured. Perhaps someone out there can explain what's going on? Like.. I'd love to know how to make "1992 Leaf Black Silver" cards as something new in my cardart arsenal, fitting in along with my creamy 1991 Fleers and "distressed wood" '87 Topps. I don't think sun exposure causes it, though I've currently got a dupe common in a sunny spot as an experiment. I'm guessing it's caused by oxidation or something a bit over my head like that. Elevation? Exposure to extreme temperatures, maybe? I should throw a card in the oven for a few minutes and see it anything interesting happens. Does this ever happen with early Topps Gold parallels too? Please speak up in the comments if you've got any leads regarding the mystery of 1992 Leaf gold foil somehow turning silver sometimes.

My completed set isn't in perfect condition. I've upgraded a couple bad offenders, but for the most part the cards are in good-enough shape. Sometimes there might be a minor issue with centering or dinged corners, but the most common defect that can torpedo the eye appeal of these cards is when the gold foil has chipped off a bit.

I didn't come across any card that was completely without foil, but some had been ravaged pretty bad in that regard. The Dave Martinez dupe above barely has foil on the right-hand side. I wish I knew a method to safely remove the foil from these cards because, again, that could allow for some new "cardart parallels" like I like to make.

Despite completing the set, and wanting for no specific upgrades, I'm not actually done hunting down these black gold beauties. Yep that's right, I've decided to work up an appendix with the preview cards. Identified by the "of 33" numbering on the back, these were distributed in two-card packs to dealers who ordered 1992 Donruss factory sets directly from Donruss. They look similar, but typically use a different photo than the standard issue. I'm about a quarter of the way there with the previews, with 8 of 33 acquired. Gotta admit that most of those 8 were just found among the regular cards, sort of like when you're working on a vintage Topps set and you end up with a couple OPC cards trying to sneak in.

So yeah, if you had gotten into the habit of setting aside bulk stacks of 1992 Leaf Black Gold for me, you no longer need to do so. Shoutout to John Miller for sending me many of these. By the way, I've finished designing a custom 9-card "Series 2" of bubble gum bubble cards a couple months back, but my printer crapped out when I went to print them. But good news: I'm getting a new printer for my birthday, and so John and Bob can expect mailings from me around the new year.

As I say, I've ended up with a ton of dupes, probably half a set worth, so if anyone reading would like a "starter lot" of '92 Leaf black gold, just let me know. But it's ok if I end up with a bunch of dupes because I can use the extras for cardart:

Leaf Gold gold leaf. Kinda like a meta palindrome of a parallel! I have a stack of stars and fan favorite dupes I'd like to make into this remix, but so far I've only gotten around to a few.

Thanks for stopping by and happy holidays, all!