Cardart

I figured I should have a homebase for my cardart activities. This page looks to answer questions such as why? (Backstory Rambling) and also cover my different cardart styles, while touching on pricing and stuff. 

On the blog, I often assume my readers have been along for the ride and know the story. But if a random collector ends up with one of my cardart creations and seeks more context, they could google the stamp on the back-- "Genuine Baseball Card Breakdown Baseball Card Art", and hopefully they'll find this page to help fill them in.

BACKSTORY RAMBLING (Totally optional if you want to skip this part, just me rambling about myself, probably coming off as pretentious, but hey this is a page for my "art".. so.. if there was ever a time for it! This got so long that I shrunk it down for easy skipping.)
TL;DR - I'm a longtime collector who got laid off in the midst of a breakdown and now I make cardart as a low-stress side-hustle.

I had a handful of baseball cards among my toys as a kid in the 80s, but it wasn't really until middle school (1990) that I caught the collecting bug and went hard, spending most of my allowance money on cards. I lost interest in high school (specifically mid-1993) and I boxed up my cards in the garage until eventually jettisoning the bulk of them in preparation for a big move (2009), just hanging onto about 10% of my best/favorite stuff from the childhood collection. Then a few years later (2012), the siren song of the Hobby pulled me back in and I started Baseball Card Breakdown in 2013 to document my adventures in the hobby and talk whatever I wanted to. I had previously been a member of music message boards to for my "online socializing", but as the web grew and forums faded, I was looking for a new group of internet dorks cool bros to bro out with online. (The music forums I was most active in had a strong female faction, so moving to a scene that's overwhelmingly male was a change! Did I mention I originally met my wife on a fan forum for a band? Haha. Welp, I'm rambling here...)  But yes, while my post count has dropped nearly every year, Baseball Card Breakdown is still sporadically kicking.

Ok, so what about my cardart backstory? Like most kids, I defaced at least a couple lowly commons for entertainment value, inspired by the "Fun Cards" feature in Beckett magazine. Even back in the early days of this blog I was asking myself how I could 'hack' virtually worthless cards to make them better.

I gravitated towards customs, taking advantage of my many years experience working with Photoshop-- I used to print cool labels for bootlegs recordings I collected and stuff like that-- and would try to think up cool cards I could whip up. I mostly just made them for me, or sometimes for trading buddies. There was a brief time circa 2015 when I tried selling a 4 or 5 different customs on Twitter for $5 shipped (not making much profit, just spreading around some neat stuff and trying to make a few extra bucks to buy cards with, lol), and I ended up getting legally threatened by a newspaper for using a certain photo, and in a different instance, a cease & desist from a major card manufacturer, if you can believe that! (Seriously, with all the counterfeit crap on eBay, how could my fun cards-that-never-were even get on a card manufacturer's radar?!) 

Potential legal headaches were bad enough, but another thing that's soured me on customs is that I have such bad luck with home printers-- Epson, Cannon, HP.. they all suck so hard-- and I was never really interested in getting my customs printed by a professional printer place, like most of the serious custom makers out there do. So now I try to avoid printing anything out other than shipping labels.

Like most, the pandemic was hard on me, but I was already reeling emotionally. My incredibly awesome dog Annie had just passed in late 2019 after a sudden illness. I might not have realized it at the time, but she was like a living comfort blanket for me, and with her out of the picture, my stress built up bigtime, only worsened when shit hit the fan worldwide in March 2020. By the time my wife and I were ready for a new lucky pooch to spoil in our confirmed-no-kids household, everyone had already had the great idea to get a dog to liven up lockdown, so it was so tough to find any canine to adopt anywhere around us! My wife had previously done her homework on dog temperaments to help ensure we got a "good girl" for a low-key middle-aged couple. But eventually, in our desperation, we jumped at seeing an "oopsie" litter that a family member's coworker had with their family dog. Our new pup Ruby was super cute but a nightmare as a pet, with long bursts of insatiable playing and chewing anything in reach, often my wife and I! Turns out this new pet had the opposite effect on my mental state than that of our previous lil angel. Instead of the dog helping me chill out, the new dog (a mutt who turns out is mostly pit bull, with 11% wolf in her DNA to really kick up the crazy!) was creating way more stress than her cuteness could soothe. 

I've always been a frustrated creative type. I like to draw, but was never very good at it, at least not consistently. I love to play music and write songs, but that "rockstar dream" never came together for me either. Plus I'm off-puttingly quiet in person, so "networking" and "making connections" has never been a strong suit of mine. Like, I really wish I was born a "nepo baby" so I could get my foot in the door in an exciting field, but alas.

My "tech job downtown" wasn't necessarily my dream job, but I liked it fine and really the worst part of it was sharing an enclosed room with a team that sometimes got on my nerves with spending so much time with them, but liked them just fine in small doses. You might think working from home would help that job, but because of some physical nature to the work, I still had to go into downtown even when I was like a ghost town. While I could work from home a few days a week-- and trust me, I loved sleeping in and not commuting-- the situation was actually really frustrating because the equipment I used for my job would often malfunction, often due to issues that needed to be address physically at the office downtown, so working from home was a double-edged sword for me. Plus video conference meetings only seemed to stress me out more. And the company had new leadership and were leading the company in directions that rubbed off the shine that working there, and so the reasonably fun job wasn't much fun anymore. Around 2022, I was really hitting a low point in my life, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, dealing with some dark shit, you know. I had just gone on anti-anxiety meds for the first time in my life when I got downsized in early 2023. While losing the longest, arguably best job I ever had was a bummer (and best paying!), it was a weight off my shoulders and instantly shrunk down my stresses to manageable levels and so my time "on meds" was brief. Still, though, I didn't want to seek out a similar job and fall into the same pit of anxiety, so I needed to attempt a pivot.

My wife and I had a Greece vacation planned for later in the year, which could have complicated my job search, and with her still doing well with her career and us doing financially sound, I was able to position myself into a "gap year" type situation where I could center my chi, get my groove back, or whatever you wanna call it. The goal was to create a "side-hustle" where I could bring in some money to the household (or at least not be such a mooch) doing something that I liked to do. The Card Art scene that rose up during the pandemic boom in the hobby had already cooled off by 2023, though it seemed like something I could have fun with and be good at after some practice. I had seen interest in some 1991 Fleer mods I made during the summer of '22 that I surprised some of my hobby buds with around the holidays that year, so I figured I'd run with that angle, creating "handcrafted variations" that hopefully collectors would like enough to want in their collection and pay me enough to at least cover my expenses and somewhere near a "minimum wage" for the time I spend on the cards I do my thing on.

And so that's the backstory on my cardart. The goal: I would really love to have enough success with this venture that my wife won't bug me to get another real job. Honestly, it's like my main goal in life right now to not have to get another job that drains my soul. I don't think I could take it! At least Ruby is slowly mellowing out as she gets older, but even pushing 4-years old as I write this, she's still a huge handful for us. But hey, one thing she really loves is long walks. A long walk is one of the few ways to tire her out, but I'm the OCD type who doesn't like to take long walks unless there's a purpose/goal to it (other than just "tire out the dog"). But luckily for Ruby and I, our local post office is a mile away. Whenever I make a sale or trade, that means the two of us take a 2-mile walk dropping the cards in the mail securely (Even if it's raining, we usually still only drive part way). This side-hustle is not about me trying to make money.. It's about trying to live a happy life! :) Keeping my wife happy, keeping my dog happy, and keeping me happy in my "happy place" of baseball cards and being creative. And damn it, I think I come up with some pretty cool looking cards that I think collectors would be happy to have in their collections! I know that "altered cards" aren't for everybody, even taboo for some. I get it; counterfeits have plagued the hobby for decades, and the wariness over "fake cards" can linger to fun stuff like customs and cardart, especially when there's money involved.

But I'd like to think that even if you don't dig the cardart thing, it's clear that I'm coming from a true place or whatever. And I bet I've got a little something for everybody with my range of cardart styles. You can't please everybody all the time, but I try to come up with enough neat ideas that even if you don't like all of my stuff, there's at least something in there that'll catch your attention.

STYLES

(The plan is to add photographic examples here soon, but it's just text for now.)

I mostly work with "junk wax" cards from the late 80s and early 90s, as the large quantities produced make them cheap enough today to sacrifice in the name of art. Plus those are the players I grew up on, and so they've got a special place in my heart.

My earliest cardart offerings were sunbleached parallels of 1991 Fleer taming the bright yellow design, later employing the same technique on 1987 Topps to create a range of "wood" color.

Those were examples of addition by subtraction, but then I began a style I call "border art" where I fill in white borders, such as by mashing them up with other card designs or imagining them as "full bleed" by drawing in the parts of the photo that the borders covered.

Then I started doing the style where a vinyl sheet is added behind cut-out background, mainly to make superfractor-like cards using that familiar golden wheels pattern. I soon started branching out by making "color-matching supers", such as Rickey Henderson A's cards with a green superfractor-like backing and red Eric Davis ones.

Then (this is about late '23/early '24) I started doing a "crystal window" style where I'd cut out part of the card and replace it was a translucent vinyl to give the cards a nice look in the light similar to acetate cards that are popular with many collectors.

Also in early 2024, I started to bring to life ideas I had kicking around in my head for a while of making "interactive cards", such as "bobblecards" (bobblehead-like cards), spinning cards (such as Ozzie Smith in a backflip), and trying to think of other ways for collectors to be able to play with their cards.

My ideas for the future include more interactive cards, as well as working towards larger display/framed pieces. I'd also like to branch out from the junk era, and even out from baseball and into other sports and non-sports, though I'm sure baseball will endure as my primary focus.

It seems like I get so distracted by my new ideas that I don't get to make all the cards I want to in one style before I've moved on to my next new idea. So many ideas, so little time to actually make them all! But if you're reading this and are looking to acquire some cardart from me, you can use this page to perhaps suggest the types of cards you'd like of players you collect.

PRICING

Pricing has been tricky for me to come up with. Again, I'm really just trying to cover my expenses and hopefully have enough left over for roughly a "minimum wage" for the time spent. Many card artists have higher prices but go all out and put their cards in thick magnetic one-touch cases with their custom made sticker sealing it in. Some guys even make their own custom slabs for their stuff! I don't really do that, mainly because those cases ain't cheap and I don't want to have to jack up my prices to compensate. Really my hope is that the cards you get from me fit right in with the rest of your collection, whether that be paged in a binder or in a big box of toploaders or whatever. (And of course having anything I made put out "on display" in someone's home or office would be an honor for me.)

But back to pricing, it kinda comes down to time spent and whether I'm "following my heart" or not. For a while I wanted to have a default policy of either:
A) $10 for any card that I have already made of my own volition (These are cards I made just because I wanted to make them, and now that the card is made, I might as well find it a good home.)
B) $20 for any card that is made for a specific sale or trade (Making cards by request or on commision makes it feel like more of a job and usually ends up stressing me out, so I need more motivation.)

I don't really stick to that, though, and my asking prices slide from around $4 "clearance" to up to $20 for a card that had a lot of time put into it and turned out nicely, with the starpower of the player sometimes factoring in a bit too.

But really what I would love is to find collectors that tell me, "Hi, I dig your cardart and I would love to buy some of my favorite player from you; A price point of ~$10 per card works for me."
And then I would take some time to craft up a few pieces, share some finished pictures, and hopefully work out a deal for some or ideally all of them, assuming the cards and price are to satisfaction.

So far I've got a great fan in a Barry Bonds collector who eagerly snatches up everything I offer his way. I also have an early supporter who collects Rickey, and have keen interest with certain Eric Davis and Andre Dawson collectors. Some stuff just doesn't sell at all-- big names.. even at a heavily discounted price when I'm just trying to clear out inventory-- while a similar thing of a "lesser" player sells right away at full asking price. You just never know! That's why I'd love to get more dependable "guys" like my "Barry Bonds guy". If you want to be my "guy" for cardart of a certain player, please get in touch and let me whip up some cool "1/1" stuff of him for your collection.

ONE-OF-ONE?

Back in 2023 when I first started doing the cardart thing, I'd often make the same card twice, if you know what I mean, like I'd do the same border art style on the same card more than once, since often I was basically just practicing at it, trying to get better. But by 2024, my attention span wouldn't really let me repeat myself too much anymore, so these days the vast majority of my cardart gets hand-numbered 1/1 on the back, just in case there was any question of it being a truly unique card. I also date the back with the year, so that way just in case I forget down the line (or someone really wants to talk me into doing another one), I can make another one and it'll be different if for no other reason than the year (..sort of like Topps Archives Signature where they put out the same signed buybacks every year but with an updated gold stamp and new serial numbering). So yeah, I make lots of 1/1s and try not to repeat myself. I know it'd be an embarrassment if I accidentally made two of the same 1/1 (as Topps got into controversy with not long ago), so I make it a priority to ensure that my 1/1s are "true" 1/1s, though sure, at the end of the day, this is cardart, so it's not the same thing as pack-stated odds or whatnot, and any value with my cards is in the eye of the beholder or whatever. But yeah, just a heads up that if you want to buy a certain card in a certain style that I've already made this year, you might have to wait until next year for me to be able to make another one. Of course I can do similar things, though, like using a different color than the earlier card, so feel free to bring up any ideas there. I should also mention that occasionally I'll make a "do over" or 2 copies of the same "1/1" on purpose but in those instances, the worst-looking of the two gets stamped as an "Artist's Proof" and I keep that one for myself. (And yes, I make cardart just for myself sometimes!)

CONTACT / AVAILABILITY

I don't really have a storefront or anything at the moment, just my eBay listings, plus whatever private sales I get through email or DM. I might also revive my Etsy shop one of these days. Easiest way to get in touch with me is probably through email. As far as private sales, I can take payment through Paypal or Venmo. Happy to go old school with check or money order, even. Oh, and I love to trade my cardart for cards on my wantlist.

So yeah, feel free to get in touch about working out a deal. Again, I try to avoid getting tied to specific cardart requests (not really taking commissions at this time), but if you tell me a certain player and maybe an idea about the types of cards and cardart styles that interest you most, I can likely come up with some neat stuff for you. Just let me know.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

When it comes to sharing my work, I'm mainly active here on the Baseball Card Breakdown blog (link to posts with "cardart" label) and on Twitter. I've got an Instagram account but I don't use it much (yet?). I'm not really all that active/talkative online most of the time, more of an introvert, but I try to make an interesting post once in a while and occasionally share my latest cardart stuff along with my other (non-artsy) collecting adventures.

I think that's it. Thanks for reading and for your interest in my humble creative efforts!

-GB
Last update: Spring 2024