1991 Fleer "white border" mod tutorial

Figured I'd put a post together about how I make de-yellowed 1991 Fleer mods. I meant to get to it earlier in the summer, but hey, there are still plenty of sunny days left.

First, get the 1991 Fleer card you'd like to modify, along with a common/dupe that you won't mind destroying. For this example, I'm looking to bleach the border of the Tony Gwynn card, while sacrificing Kelvin Torve's card (no offence to Mr. Torve, who got into 42 more MLB games than the rest of us).

So now you want to cut the picture out of the chump's card. This will be our mask to block the sun from the good card's photo. If you have access to a paper cutter, you should probably use that to help you keep the edges straight. Scissors work fine if you've got a steady hand. And of course you could just measure the dimensions out on a non-card piece of cardboard to avoid needing a common '91 Fleer to sacrifice, but that's more work to get just the right size.

I like to use a hard case such as a screw-down like this one, and you just place the cut-out photo on top of the good card's photo. I've found that a small piece of paper towel on top can help prevent the top photo from sliding around much. Try to get the mask as perfectly centered as you can and then screw it down with everything in place.

Then you just find a sunny spot to put it. Your best bet is a window that gets a lot of afternoon sun. You'll likely notice fading after a couple weeks, with the bold yellow mellowing out to a nice creamy tone after a month or two. The longer you leave it, the lighter the border will get, until eventually it's as white as it'll get. You'll probably want to rotate the card at some point to account for shadows, and you can speed up the process by moving it around to different sunny locations throughout the day-- chasing the sun, as it were-- instead of leaving it in the same place all the time. Some '91 Fleer cards are bolder than others, so that could factor in with the timeline, too.

Troubleshooting: If your mask wasn't a good fit, you might notice yellow slivers remaining on the good card, in which case try trimming the mask at those parts. On the other hand if the mask was cut too small, you may notice fading around the border of the photo of the good card. It's hard to get it perfect, but it's not like you're submitting these for grading, so remember to have fun with it.

But yeah, after a few weeks pass, you should have yourself a sharp-looking homemade parallel ready to spice up your collection. I stamp/sign the back, like with my other cardart. You may choose to make a similar notation, or perhaps make a little explanation note to store with the card.. you know, to prevent confusion down the line. Definitely don't be a douche trying to pass off your mod as an official variant, like to fool somebody into overvaluing your polished turd. For the record, I've sold a handful of these mods over the years at about 5 bucks a pop (which I think is pretty cheap considering how long they take to make). I'll admit I've been coy with my process in the past, hoping to keep these as somewhat of a "brand exclusive" as I've tried to make a go of it as a niche cardartist. But demand never really took off and at this point I'm off to other ideas, though I still consider making 1991 Fleer mods one of my favorite summertime activities these days, funny as it sounds. It's fun to "make a thing" and these aren't much work, just patience. Makes unbearably hot days a little easier to take because you at least know your '91 Fleer mod is soaking up the rays, making progress for you.

So there you go. I hope some of you readers are intrigued about do-it-yourself parallels and maybe give it a shot yourself. You could even get funky with it, like try fading a gradient or with stripes or something. Good luck and have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

Been meaning to thank GCA for this PWE he sent me recently.

A few appreciated vintage needs, plus a Sheena Easton card to make a cardart version for him.

Thanks, Greg! I'll get a return your way soon.

- -o

Checking Fergie off my '75 Topps needs reminded me I'm not too far off with that set. After snagging the few remaining commons on Sportlots and COMC, I'm now down to just a few big names:

#1 Aaron (Highlight)

80 Fisk

280 Yaz

320 Pete Rose

500 Nolan Ryan

510 Vida Blue

531 Reds (Sparky)

616 (Jim Rice RC)

If anybody has any of those for trade, let me know. I'm thinking it'd be cool to complete the set within its Heritage Year, but I'll have to get serious about it to score all those in the next month.

- -o

Video gaming update.

After playing it regularly for the past year and a half, I've finished Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and have gone backwards to the previous game Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time. It's really frustrating starting over with a weak Link getting my ass handed to me by basic bitch monsters. The sequel really improved gameplay with handy ways to do things, and it's like this first game is a rough draft. But hey, that's on me for playing them out of order, I guess. lol. It's still fun enough to play and I'll try to keep at it. But like, the sequel has rockets to help you quickly blast up into the air when you need to get some elevation, but the first game makes you slowly climb around a lot more instead. There's probably a better way, but I haven't discovered it. I started playing it on Halloween and I'm giving myself a month before I search for help online, but once we hit December, I'm going to have to spend some time watching YouTube tips videos and shrine walkthroughs.

- -o

Excuse the brag, but I had my best financial day as a "cardartist" yesterday, with sales topping $250 on Thanksgiving Eve. Sure would be great if that was a common payday for me, but it was really just a coincidence of a couple outlier big sales (and the Ozzie Smith '90 Donruss tree ornament). The '88 Topps Barry Bonds "Super Rainbow" was made by request after I had made a similar display using Randy Johnson's 1989 Topps rookie. Barry's '87 Topps rookie is a bit too pricey for this concept, but the '88 worked well. I'm not excited about the prospect of making more of these, though, as I kinda get burnt out working on the same card that many times. But it's a cool end result with them all together.

The other big sale was a lot of 36 of my "white border" '91 Fleer mods to a guy who took a liking to the remix of a much maligned baseball card design that dared to lean hard into the color yellow. I think it's the first time I've parted with these things other than as singles. I gave him a good bulk deal. I spent a lot of time of these, but I think it's kinda like a gardener tending to a garden. Caring for them is often a relaxing process, then hopefully your flowers eventually bloom and you can visibly enjoy the fruits of your labor. But yeah, I'll probably try to build up my inventory again with a new crop next summer.

Anyways, I'm glad I had at least that one nice payday. Really it probably just got me out of the red for all the supplies and stuff I've spent money on to see if I could use them to do neat things to cards with. But I feel like I'm in a good place. Don't tell my wife but I'm basically retired from the rat race.. at least for now, but hopefully forever. My top goal in life is to not have to go back to the grind. Sometimes I stress myself out too much just working on my dumb art stuff. Like, I have to have sometime in my life to stress over even when I can basically just play Zelda all day. No but really, let's be honest, my real job these days is "stay at home doggie dad" to an attention-demanding 4.5-year old pit-lab-husky-wolf mutt mix who still acts very much like a crazy puppy. (She even excitedly peed in the house last week for the first time in a long time! I really thought we were over than unfortunate phase. Glad we still have the cleaning enzyme stuff to get rid of the odor.) 

I like when I make cardart sales because then I can walk Ruby to the post office, which makes me feel like I'm actually doing something productive for me and my family, not just aimlessly walking around the neighborhood with my dog so she'll eventually chill for a while afterwards.

I took a picture of her this morning just after midnight in low before-bed lighting. I thought it was funny she saved a little bit of kibble from dinner to ring in Thanksgiving by eating just after the stroke of midnight. Like, she goes hard for Thanksgiving. But no, she does have a blast with the whole local family together in one place.

- -o

Speaking of taking photos in the dark.. 

I found a nicely glowing sheet and had some fun with translucent cards, as you can see from the shadows they left behind. Can you identify which 4 cards were there? One's a Nine Pockets custom.

I'll call the post good here. Thanks for reading and hope you all have/had a great holiday!

Soaking up the Summer Sun

Ok, here's the card I got with the eBay cash I recently won from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. I'd been after this "King of Junk Wax" for a while.

I think we're alone now; there doesn't seem to be anyone around, so I'll show you the back where it's easier to see it's the tiffany version. Pretty sweet. 

I should have picked up one of these a few years ago for less money probably, but better late than never. And Jon and I kinda hobby-bonded over Bo Jackson, specifically a '91 Fleer mod earlier this year, and so I thought it'd be fitting that I turn my winnings from him into a nice Bo card, giving it a little extra oomph. Took me a week or so to make it happen, but was able to score this one for a best-offer that factored in the shipping to use the code to cover it to the cent.

Thanks again, Jon!

Hey, on the topic of my 1991 Fleer mods (and Bo Jackson), I've got some "new variations" I'd been meaning to feature on the blog.

Getting fancy with the '91 Fleer bleaching.. New gradient fade style mixing the old and new. Nicknamed the swirl (banana/vanilla).

I also figured I'd modify the ProVisions inserts that are the highlight of the '91 Fleer set. The lines and text below the artwork are typically bold yellow, matching the base cards. So I figured.. why not? ..made a homemade variation with lightened text. It's something. Maybe it enhances the image to be freed from the distracting yellow? Granted, that was kinda boring, but then I got a fun idea...

Alternating colors kicks things up, yeah? Unfortunately I already used up both my Bo's by then, so only Big Mac and Donnie Baseball made it into this style, but I think I'll do more of these as I get ahold of more ProVisions. But this summer at my house, '91 Fleer has been taking a backseat to another set I've been messing with in the sun. Yes, this post is a hint! "Woodgrain variations" in the works, lol. Stay tuned!

I opened an Etsy shop for my quirky cards

I haven't really sold cards (or anything really) for the past few years but after getting laid off last month, I've decided to start up a side hustle selling my fun/weird cards on Etsy.

Debut drop of (15) 1991 Fleer mods available now. Use promo code GRANDOPENING by the end of March for 15% off.

etsy.com/shop/BreakdownCards

I'm trying to figure out the market for these things, so if a price seem high, keep an eye on it because I plan to run good sales on the cards that don't sell after a while. (I got cute with some "uniform-number pricing" among this first batch.) And all purchases include free US shipping plus a surprise bonus custom, so there's that!

Please consider yourself invited to help out your ol' pal Gav and spread the word. Do you have a buddy who is a bigtime player-collector of anyone who appears in 1991 Fleer (or 1991 Fleer Update)? Hey, they might jump at scoring themselves a lightened border of that player from me! Send 'em over my way, why not! :)

In addition to the '91 Fleer mods, I've got lots of cardart/etc ideas to work on and offer in the shop soon.. ranging from "ok, that's a weird idea" to "HOTDAMN,NOWTHAT'SCOOL!" (if I'm able to pull it off, which is always a big if) and everywhere in between. (NOTE: Customs that I print out are still trade-only.. mostly because I don't want to worry about potential legal entanglements. Mods and "cardart" are much less sticky in that regard seeing as those involved in creating the cards have already been paid when the cards were originally brought to market.) Apparently you can sell regular cards on Etsy too, not just the "crafty" ones, so maybe someday I'll start selling normal cards on there too, though I think "feeBay" is still the best option for selling sports cards. I mean, I for one have never searched for baseball cards on Etsy, but I see a lot of creative card/sports folks on Twitter who use Etsy as their online shop for their art cards or coasters made from junkwax wrappers or whatever.

Anyway, thanks as always for reading my cardblog. I promise I won't pimp the shop too much (--always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when a blog gets a little to heavy on the self-promotion or trying to make a buck, and I know I'm not alone on that--), but expect a link in the sidebar and for me to probably mention when I get a new drop of cards added to the shop, which I'm currently shooting to do once a month. When(/if?!) I get another "real job working for the man", my Etsy may likely dry up as I just don't have enough hours in my day for too much stuff thanks in part to owning a high-energy dog.

Anyway..

That link again...

etsy.com/shop/BreakdownCards

Again, use promo code (or this link->) GRANDOPENING for 15% off until end of March 2023.

Thanks for your support!

A New Look for 1991 Fleer

Longtime readers of Baseball Card Breakdown know I'm no stranger to getting weird with cardboard. My latest quirky venture is modifying 1991 Fleer base cards.

Yep, real 1991 Fleer cards but without the bold yellow! Utilizing a lengthy, solar-powered process, I've developed a method to modify '91 Fleer borders into a creamy color that's easier on the eyes. I think they look great! The yellow borders have a tendency to overpower the cards, but with a more neutral border, the design and photo take center stage. I call them "white border mods" for simplicity, but it's really more of an off-white tone where they end up, looking similar to the light border Pro-Vision cards from the factory set of '91 Fleer (and the basketball Pro-Visions that year).

I think of it like a fresh remix of an old classic, providing a new perspective on cards that are often regarded as just about as "junky" as junk wax gets. I ripped my share of Fleer packs as a young collector back in 1991, so the set's got some sentimental value for me. I know most collectors stick up their nose at '91 Fleer, but I'm hoping these mods might help folks find a new appreciation for the cards.

I made a bunch this year and brewed up a plan to do a "holiday surprise" mailing blast in time for Christmas. In past years, I've sent out special customs, or tree ornaments made from cards (LaMarr "Ho Ho" Hoyt one year, Benito "Santa"iago another), and one year was homemade rip cards with a mini magnet custom hiding within.

It wasn't easy, but I made it to my goal of finishing twenty-five '91 Fleer mods to mail out to hobby buds of mine, all with festive doodle overlays to kick them up for the holiday season. I hope people like them, but we'll see what kind of response they get. I'm sure the concept is not for everybody, but again, I think they're pretty cool.

I took photos of all 25 decked-out cards before mailing them, and plan to share those pix on the blog in a special Christmas Day post.

Sadly even with so many of them, I wasn't able to hit all my hobby buds. My apologies to those I left out. No Braves or Astros finished in time, nor Barry Larkin, Dan Gladden, Dave Winfield, or Mark McGwire... all which were earmarked for trader buddies but as luck would have it, those cards didn't complete the process in time. (It's often a crapshoot with these things.) Those will likely be done around springtime.

Here are a few more finished mods to check out:

And there you have it: 1991 Fleer white border mods!

I have a few extras I've now added to a section on my Trade Bait page, and should have more to add once some of the few that are currently in production eventually wrap up.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!