women and children

I haven't really gotten into the blog-posting groove yet here in the first half of 2026, but hey, just finally got the "we're packing your order" email from COMC, so I should have plenty of blog fodder on the way soon.

But for today, here are 3 various eBay pickups to show off.

I've probably got a couple thousand cards in my Guys From Granite minicollection, but this is my first Gal from Granite card. Also pretty sure it's my first MMA autograph. Juliana "Killer" Miller blipped on my radar earlier this year as a pro athlete who attended the same high school as me, and I was happy to discover she had some Leaf cards out there.

This one is #'d 4/6, but of course Leaf does the shtick where they put out a ton of parallels, most of which are low-numbered, so not even a 1/1 is all that big of a deal considering there are a bunch of 1/1s. But yeah, I'm happy with this purple refractor I ended up landing for a good price. Looks like Juliana's record is currently 4-4-0. Wishing her the best of luck with her career of hitting and kicking.

Ladies Night continues with the lovely Ms. Sign Here. Whoops, no, that's model/actress/artist Wrenna Monet and this card was sacrificed as an example to show her where to sign her stack of cards, and somehow it didn't end up in the trash, but rather in my card collection.

And the backside. From a quick googling, she's got a lot more tattoos now. I'm still tentatively planning to build my "Sign Here" minicollection to 9 cards, then I'll stick a fork in it and call it good at a page's worth. This is my 8th such card, so the hunt continues, but the conclusion could come any day now.

Speaking of penultimate cards...

Baby Bo here nearly finishes off my 2005 Topps Pristine Legends frankenset. Funny that Bo originally suited up as catcher in his youth. The Yankees drafted him in the second round of the 1982 draft before he accepted a football scholarship to Auburn instead. Think about that alternate reality where Bo Jackson skipped college football and instead became famous as the Yankees backstop. LOL

I'm building the 140-card set in non-base form.. which means the bulk of my set is refractors, plus several Gold refractors, which are all /65 with a "die cut" deckle edge. Reminiscent of vintage OPC, I could do without the rough edges of the Golds, but whatever. This one has some extra wear at the top, but I'm just happy to be done chasing this card. (The regular refractors of The Early Years subset are numbered to a scant /25, so the Golds are nearly three times as obtainable there, whereas for the rest of the set, the Golds are the tougher parallel.) Now I'm down to one pricey hurdle at the finish line, another Early Years card. That last need also happens to be the last card in the set's checklist, so maybe I'll start a blog series where I slowly feature my Pristine Legends frankenset a few cards at a time, and hopefully I'll have landed that final card by the time I get to the end.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunwashed Junk

It's another rainy day here in Portland, and so I thought I'd throw back to some summer cardartin' I did in collaboration with ol' Mr. Sun.

This post is also inspired by Nick V. who left the following comment on my recent Don Mattingly post:

"Okay it took me a moment to realize that the 88 mod was Baseball's Best. I was briefly SUPER impressed that you managed to fade the blue. Occurs to me to wonder how the red and orange 1990 borders would fare here."

Way ahead of ya, Nick!... 

This "white border" '90 Donruss Tony Gwynn took me a couple years, if I recall, maybe three. Got a little sloppy on the sides of the photo, but not too bad. If the player name had been in black or blue, this would look pretty cool, but since the name gets washed away, I wouldn't grade this mod variety as one I'm compelled to make more of, especially considering how very long they take to make. But it was a neat experiment and left me with another unique oddity for my big Mr. Padre PC.

And back to Nick's '88 Donruss comment, yeah, if you try bleaching the borders of a regular '88D card, all that will happen is the little red bits in the middle will fade, but the black and blue hold strong*. But then those orange Baseball's Best cards in the same design give you something more to work with. I haven't made much of these, just the Donnie, this Mark Grace, and a Barry Bonds for my Barry Bonds guy**.

*Probably after like a decade the blue would fade? 

**Actually, I think I stopped that one at yellow so it would be a Pirates colormatch

Here's another idea I have to give Nick V. credit for suggesting. Yeah, the folks at Topps bizarrely tinted the background on Billy Williams' 1974 Topps card, ostensibly to make the player pop better in the photo, but it just looks weird, like it was Free Bowl of Curry Day at the stadium and the crowd rioted. I've been making my own "collector corrected" variations, bleaching away the yellow but keeping Billy and his bat from getting faded with it. Above are 3 of my mods along with a regular card for comparison. I put one in my set, can use another in the PC, but have several that I've been meaning to make available FT/FS one of these days. I figure anyone with a "master set" of '74 Topps could use the unofficial variation to kick up their set. And I do still need several '74 Topps variations to "fully" complete my '74 set (spreadsheet) so I'm hoping these will make good trade chips.

With the '82 Kmart set, the AL MVPs feature a middle bar of blue in the background (won't fade), but the NL MVPs have yellow, so those are fun and easy to whitewash into a cleaner look like the Cobra here. I've also got Clemente, Mays, and Garvey versions that I couldn't locate in time for this post, but if any of my trader buds want one, just let me know.

Speaking of Steve Garvey, here's a funky one for gcrl if he wants it. There was a surface blemish in the background of this card, so I did a "blackout" style that came out ok. Sometimes figuring out the best way to deal with a problem helps come up with new ideas.

More playing with 1987 Topps. Some of these I tried to make the border sorta sync up to the photo, with the Pete Rose turning out the best of those attempts. These are up for trade.

 

But I'm still hoarding 1987 Topps Bo Jackson cards all to myself! Each of these is unique like a snowflake or someshit. Love 'em and hope to make more next summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

Topps Retired Triad: Refractorless Edition

Time now for another trio of Topps Retired pickups. Often when I do one of these "Triad" posts, it consists of 3 refractor autographs. But no rainbow shine this time-- heck, this first one isn't even an autograph, if you can believe that! lol

I generally haven't bothered going after the non-auto parallels of my beloved Topps Retired Signature Edition, such as the black borders from 2005. But if the price is right and they catch my eye-- like this nice color-matching Bo Jackson-- I might take a run at it.

Numbered 44/54 on the back. 

Though I hope to upgrade to a refractor someday, I went ahead and snagged this base Lou Brock auto from 2003 Retired recently.

While not serial-numbered, it has a print-run of 76 ("Group B"), so it doesn't pop up too often.

And now we close out with my first backdoored Retired card.

While Andy Van Slyke has a base card in 2005 Retired, he's absent from the (Chrome) autograph checklist. Turns out Andy didn't get around to returning the signed cards to Topps in time. In fact, looks like he never returned the cards to Topps, but has just this year begun occasionally sending them out in autograph-request returns to lucky fans. At least 3 or 4 of those have made it to eBay so far and I landed one for a decent price. (Glad I didn't jump at the first over-priced example to pop up.)

"Not valid without (hologram) sticker" keys you in to something being off. Validity aside, I think this is a damn cool addition to my Retired auto hoard.

Just the fact that I own this unreleased card gives me hope that maybe someday my dream Retired "ghost whales" could surface. I'm talking about the Kirby Puckett auto from 2003 and the Dick Allen auto from 2004 (listed on early checklists, but ultimately not packed out). You gotta think they exist, maybe in storage somewhere.. waiting to possibly see the light of day again someday. 
Hey, never say never... as Andy Van Slyke here can tell you.

Other people's customs

I don't buy customs all that often these days, but coincidentally I scored some recently from two different independent card makers and they both arrived on the same day. One is a set of cards-that-should-have-been '80s Career Cappers by Gio at When Topps Had Balls. The other group of cards are artistic interpretations of cards-that-actually-were (and some that-never-were) by Mark at IDrawBaseballCards.

I love both and figured I'd mix them together in a post.

Kicking off with a terrific pair of 1983 Topps homages.

I won't show all the backs, but I'll give you an idea with these two. In a perfect world I'd love to see full stats on these final tributes, but I know from experience that's a pain to get all lined up. The career highlights are nice, though, and look good in the original design colors. The art cards keep it simple, as you'd expect, but provide the important info.

Rookie mania!

Here are a couple active guys in Acuña and Mookie. The sketch one is a bonus thank-you from Mark. The rest I picked out from his shop from the $1 singles, and a promo code he shared took care of the shipping. Pretty good deal. They're on nice cardstock and everything.

1980 Topps mix.

A trio of 1981 Topps should-have-beens. Yeah, would have been cool of Topps to give a tribute card to Sadaharu Oh, why not?

Hall of Famers who wrapped up their careers in 1983 and could've/should've gotten base card sendoffs in 1984 Topps that might've looked something like this.

Dipping back into the 70s to pair up Pirates and Orioles with 1985 Topps.

1987 Topps representing.

Reggie Jackson and a couple other guys who last took the field during the 1987 season and therefore would have been nice to get a final card of in 1988 Topps.

Finally, we close out with these beauties in the 1989 Topps design, including a fun McGruff/McGriff combo.

So there you have a few neat custom cards I added to my collection the other day. Mad props to Gio and Mark for their fine work.
Thanks for stopping by.

new cardart: Silhouette Cards

I haven't really shared any new art projects of mine so far this year, but I've been tinkering on a project for the past few months. All the Christmas tree ornaments that I made back in November '24 kinda burned me out on that style of cardmaking (cutting up real cards and adding shiny backgrounds, etc.) and so starting in mid December, I began working on a new concept: silhouette cards!

Rickey Henderson was my muse the first subject chosen. When he suddenly passed away shortly after I began working on the concept, it became a more somber tribute to him. I made a lot of "prototypes" as I figured out the best way to go about things through trial and error, so it was nice to at the same time be celebrating the memory of a legend. And while I've got other Rickey silhouettes in the works (running, etc), for this initial batch, I stuck with his rookie card stance, in a Warhol-inspired repetition of variations.

In addition to singles, I've wanted to put together displays, further leaning into the Warhol aesthetic with the color quadrants. I customized a BCW 4-card magnetic holder with "The GOAT" banner in the middle.

I've also got Bo Jackson in this "GOAT" series, putting a vertical twist on his iconic '90 Score FB/BB card.

This "Black Metallic" themed display is available in both standard (sharp corners) and rounded corners:

Also a "Black Gold" variation display..

I really want to improve at making videos, because this stuff generally looks better in-hand with the light jumping around.

And you readers know I'm nuts for glow-in-the-dark stuff, so the glowing versions are probably my favorite. I sampled several types of glowing material searching for the best and brightest.

The trio of this first batch of silhouette "GOAT" cards is rounded out by a renowned basketball guy.

Riffing on the iconic Michael Jordan card in 1986-87 Fleer basketball.

So there you have it, an overview of the latest creative endeavor in the Baseball Card Breakdown catalog. All these cards and more have been made available for sale on eBay now. (I might soon try putting stuff on Etsy too, and of course I'm always down to trade.) I'll be interested to see what styles sell and what don't. Then I'll likely work up a second batch once I get a feel for what people like (ie, more variations of the styles that sell well), along with other ideas I've got kick. Even if this stuff does sell well, it'll be a while till I recoup the investment on my manufacturing costs. But if people dig them and I can achieve my dream of being able to make a thing and then easily sell the thing, that'd be awesome. I don't do it for the money, I do it because I like creating neat stuff (and generating walks to the post office with my dog), but sure, it'd be nice to eventually turn a profit and be able to consider myself a "working artist" with this crafty side-hobby of mine.

If you're interested, here's the link to my eBay listings. 

Thanks!

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!

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #7 Bo Jackson

Dang it, guys.. I did it again! I accidentally went out of order with this set. I jumped to #8 Michael Jordan in the previous installment, skipping over #7 Bo Jackson. Wasn't on purpose, but I guess I was swept up in The Last Dance hype, lol. I suppose card number doesn't really matter much unless you're working on the set, or maybe a frankenset, or maybe you're one of the very few collectors who collect certain numbers, like the No. 5 Collector guy and how Tom at Angels In Order likes cards that are #444. But for most of us, card number is rarely something we worry much about. But I still feel like a bad set-blogger for the taboo faux pas of going out of order. I have not yet made such a mistake on my 1991 MusiCards blog, thankfully.

Not the best likeness of Bo, but overall a neat two-sport card. Funny how I was just talking in my latest post (editor's note: the first part of this post was drafted a while back; I've posted a few times since) about the White Sox rehauling their uniforms several times over the years until finally finding a fit with colors most equated in sports to the NFL Raiders. This card shows both for ya. I never thought about it, but it sure is funny that 1991, the year they switched to those uniforms, was the year they signed Bo after he had recently retired from football. Having a former Raiders hero on the squad really must've helped embolden and validate their gutsy uniform decision. I don't know about you guys, but at my middle school around '91-92, the new black White Sox stuff was considered the coolest. Probably also because popular rappers wore it sometimes. I never had a Sox hat (which still fills me with a gentle wave of regret to this day), though I did have a black White Sox shirt back then which I wore when I needed to impress the ladies. Worked every time. Nah, I'm just kidding. But I thought I looked cool, at least. I think I've even posted an awkward-age photo of me wearing it in an older post but I don't think I'll dig it out this time.

Some nightmare fuel on the back with a demonic clown playing guitar. Yikes! But seriously, I wonder if Bo kept up practicing guitar? Talented guy like that could do damn near anything he set his mind to, so I bet he could learn to really shred if he worked at it.

Anyways, now time for the randomness.

Isn't this a cool painting? Looks like a fun night at the Sugar Shack.

Speaking of sugar, I'm a dessert guy. I've got a sweet tooth and the curiosity to hunt for new dessert ideas to blow my mind. One I found that I will highly recommend is eating chocolate pudding not with a spoon but with nutty buddies. Oh man, that's heaven!

Another good one: sandwich of butterscotch pudding between a couple snickerdoodles, with fresh strawberries on the side. Very nice!

What the hell is this? I think it's a Twinkie dipped in the last of the butterscotch pudding with some strawberries thrown in for good measure. Yeah, this was fine. But let's be honest, these 3 desserts I've shown here are in descending order and this was the least best.

Shadow box tribute to my amazing pup Annie Lou who left us last year. Features a dual auto and some game-used memorabilia (collar and her favorite toy). Turned out pretty well.

The wild bunnies who've been enjoying free reign of our backyard in the months since Annie's passing have been a godsend to us, providing the cuteness needed to help keep our hearts from turning to dust given the events of 2020. But the backyard has a new ruler on the horizon, with Dog #3 less than a week away from joining our household. Pretty excited about it. Stay tuned.

Ladybugs are cool too. Snapped this nice close-up a week or so back.

This baby ladybug was found inside on the wall of my wife's home office, but I successfully rehomed it to the overgrown garden. Seemed to be pretty happy to have leaves to crawl around on instead of a boring wall.

No luck on the TTM request I sent to Mark McGwire a couple springs ago, but here's a version of it with a facsimile auto. Maybe someday!

Here's a McGwire mashup ("bash up") I made in photoshop (this is not a real photo). 1987 Topps meets 1991 Fleer Pro Visions for a Project 2020-style "art card".

I thought this was a fun one! Would love to see Topps and Panini (or Upper Deck) come together to offer a special card or set of cards along these lines with proceeds going to charity... covid, BLM, or something. But that's just me pie-in-the-skying over here on my computer relaxing at the end of a stressful Q2 at work.

And here's a dumb gif I made of Bert Blyleven's 1975 Topps card. LOL

Can't remember if I shared this here yet or not, but here's another dumb thing I made for Twitter recently.. brings us back to Bo, tying up the post nicely. It's a 3-way mashup of cards: 1971 Topps Nolan Ryan, 1986 Topps Traded Bo Jackson, and 1990 Classic "Nolan Knows Bo".. all in one crazy image.

That's it for this ignorable shitpost. See ya next time!