Cleveland Rocks

Of the 4 remaining teams this postseason, I guess I'm rooting for the Guardians to go all the way, though really I'll be happy as long as it isn't the Dodgers again.

I happen to have PCs going for 4 guys on Cleveland's current roster-- which seems like a lot since I don't collect a ton of active players-- so in the wake of their impressive comeback in the ALDS, I figured I'd get a post out of showing off some highlights.

That division series had me torn. On one hand, Chicago is my ancestral homeland, so wanting their teams to win is kinda embedded in my DNA. But Cleveland has a guy named Gavin. A pretty good Gavin, in fact! This past season, Williams became the first Gavin to lead the league in strikeouts, with his 248 pacing the AL. He's kept it going in the postseason, stepping up to carry a taxed Cleveland pitching staff.

Turns out I've got 3 Gavin Williams autos in the PC, all unlicensed Leaf stickergraphs. I'm pretty sure I've taken a run at a 1st Bowman auto or two, but couldn't walk away with one as of yet. At least the autos I've got are nice and shiny. They've also got serial numbers I like...

A pair of Christmas Cards and the first-off-the-line of 99.

As far as fully-licensed highlights from the PC, these funky rookie refractors are pretty sharp.

The refraction continues as we move now to Jose Ramirez, the heart and soul of Cleveland's lineup.

Looks like he's another guy whose signature changed after their rookie year, speeding it up after the novelty of signing stacks of your cards wears off. The 2014 Chrome RC auto was acquired as part of a blockbuster blogger trade back during the glory days of exchanging cards with other bloggers. It's the card I was most looking forward to when thumbing through the PC. And on the other hand, I had to do a double take when I came across the 2018 Stadium Club auto, as I had completely forgotten that I even had it, as if a friendly gremlin slipped it into the PC at some point over the years.

My childhood stint in the hobby ended in mid '93, and I have warm memories of pulling Topps Gold parallels while ripping packs of 1993 Topps, so I wanted to score myself one when Archives paid tribute a few years back. I think they were case hits or something, so I didn't bother going after a bunch or anything, but was happy to land this Ramirez for a good price.

Austin Hedges shares catching duties for the Guardians, sticking around in the game over a decade now by virtue of being a good dude and his skills handing pitchers, despite not having much luck with the bat. To his credit, 2026 saw him reach a career-high .247 batting average. Since he came up as a Padres prospect around the time I had returned to the hobby, I've ended up with a lot of Austin Hedges cards over the years. Autos here are a sweet Leaf Valiant card and a signed Topps Pro Debut, the later probably coming from Zippy.

A few more highlights from the Hedges PC. 

Gotta admit I kinda forgot Rhys Hoskins was on Guardians this year, but yeah, he was in the 1B/DH mix for Stephen Vogt's squad most of the year before an injury in August knocked him out of the lineup. He hasn't been as effective/fun of a player since the ACL injury wiped out his 2023 season, but I've still got a solid PC built during his early years in Philly. Another Zippy-Zappy TTM auto featured here. (btw, I need to post about a couple incoming PWEs from him, plus one from TLC.. thanks, guys!)

A variety of Panini cards I thought were worth taking a picture of.

Some neat Topps miscellany. The '70 Topps is a cloth parallel. The orange refractor is #/25 (sadly not #12). As the Ginter RC mini notes on the stamped sleeve, it's a glow-in-the-dark parallel (case hit).

And some more Topps hits, including the lone fully-licensed auto I've got of Rhys. It's numbered 66/99, which is extra fun because it's the same upside-down.

Let's close with the team's skipper. Stephen Vogt isn't a PC guy of mine, but he's in my collection thanks to a 12/25 Ginter mini that a reader kindly reached out to me about back in 2017.

He's got his work cut out for him, but wishing Mr. Vogt the best of luck finally bringing a championship back to The Cleve.

Rod to the Rescue

Rod from Padrographs, who's also my NE Portland neighbor, kindly swung by last weekend with another box of miscellaneous cards for me. Instead of tucking into them right away, I set the box aside to have something to look forward to after a procedure I had scheduled the coming week (yesterday).

Yep, I finally got that colonoscopy I've been dragging my feet about. It's a big weight off my back and tiny polyp off my colon. I'll do the public service thing and recommend any of you guys over 45 who haven't gotten one yet to talk to your doctor about it and go ahead and do it if recommended.

On to the cards that were waiting for me on the other side. It's like a "the card show comes to me" situation when I get a box from Rod... mostly recent product, but plenty of variety. Typical "commons" mixed in there with other good cards that didn't stick in his collection, and occasionally special cards targeted for me.

 
I hope to eventually get around to the current Blog Bat-Around talking about our proudest hobby achievements, but these guys are in the conversation for me. A year ago, I was pretty stoked to complete the full run of Dan Walters cards on the market. Even a "completed" PC has room for additions when you're talking about aftermarket autos and buybacks (and sure, even customs and CardArt). This is only my second autograph of his, with the minor league card I got signed in-person as a kid being the other. This one features a bolder signature/pen, so that's a nice way to button the PC for now. And I continue to be damn near giddy over being the #1 ranked Dick Allen collector on TCDb, a streak that's been going since well before his tardy Hall of Fame induction. Thrilled to add to my total with this lime green Optic parallel from 2026 Donruss.

Since I don't rip new stuff these days, an influx like this from Rod really helps me keep up with the current wave of intriguing young players coming up. I kinda hate hearing about hot new rookies of whom I have no cards.. but when I have a card or two of the guy, boom, then I'm a stakeholder and I root for him. LOL. I've been like that since Kevin Maas.

Of course any box Rod gives me is likely to be heavy with our mutual favorite team, as was this one, with some highlights visible here.

And a nice stack of PC guys for me. Looks like I'm due for another big sort.

Lots more cards I could show, but I'll keep the post tight and close with this grand finale:

Christmas Card! Of a hot young player! I'm sure this would fetch a decent return on eBay, but Rod knows my affinity for cards numbered 12/25 and graciously let me have this one. Love it! Konnor Griffin is signed to be the Pirates shortstop through 2034. Injuries have blemished his rookie campaign, but the future looks bright for the 20-year old.

Again, huge thanks to Rod for being so incredibly generous with me over the years. And during a rough time like when I'm in the midst of a colonoscopy prep, it means even more. I help him out with occasional Photoshop requests when he needs a hand, and try to come up with fun Tim Flannery cardart so he doesn't leave empty-handed when I see him. But yeah, don't think I'll ever be able to really balance the scales there.

Thanks for reading, guys. 

[BTW, if you're having trouble finding new blog posts thanks to Blogger crapping out on their blogroll stuff, Bo mentioned a good alternative is the TCDb blog list, so you might want to bookmark that.]

Barter trade with a former Topps employee

I recently swapped a pair of CDs for a box of various cards. I love those rare times when I can swing a barter trade, as they just seem more special or whatever than a purchase or straight cards-for-cards deal.

The story of this one is a guy on a FB group for an old band I like was looking to buy some bootleg live CDs he owned back in the day. His popup profile thing said he worked as a designer at Topps, which got my attention so I reached out about the possibility of a cards-for-CDs swap. Turns out he was no longer at Topps, and that they were "crazy stingy" during most of his tenure, but he had a small box of hits from pack rips a decade ago before things got too bad at the company. He shared blurry overview photos of the cards, and nothing jumped out at me in particular (sadly no Ohtani or Judge autos to choose from), but there were a few nice cards and a good variety of stuff I could have fun sorting through, with plenty of stuff that would slide nicely into my collection. Since he wasn't too attached to the cards and I wasn't too attached to the couple of rare CDs I had from his wantlist, we were able to work out a deal where I got the whole lot of cards.

Kicking off with these big three. There were a few baseball autos in the lot, but funny enough the best of them is a mascot. Clark's 2016 Opening Day auto is especially neato considering that was the year the Cubs finally broke the curse. The Abe Vigoda ginter relic is pretty great too, for those of us old enough to remember him (or at least his funny later appearances on Conan). But the Sting relic/auto #'d 26/50 might be the top card of the lot. I'm not even a big wrestling guy, but I know he's a good name to pull there.

Highlights from the several relics, including a couple pinstripes. The former Topps guy I traded with is a Mets fan, so that might explain why they have more representation in the lot than other teams. (Yankees and Dodgers were both conspicuously absent.)

I'll show the rest of the baseball stuff at the end, but now strap in for some Star Warin'.

A pair of sketch cards with cool original artwork of fan favorites from the classic trilogy: the rancor and Boba Fett. Love these.

 
Figured I should show the backs in case anyone is interested in the artists, though I'm not going to take a stab at deciphering the names. I thought it was funny to see a stickergraph on the back of a sketch card, but I suppose since it's a Chrome product, they wanted to throw a plasticy border on it so it could count as a Chrome card (because of course Chrome surface wouldn't work for most types of sketching.) Pretty sure it's my first embedded sketch like that.

Some parallel/insert SW stuff. The Luke Skywalker is /50 on the back.
 

A couple manurelics, including a numbered Han Solo, plus a pair of "authentic film cel relic" cards that you can hold up to the light...

..to peep a still from space. Neat!

This trio of Star Wars autos aren't big names but still cool to add. Ralph Brown had a minor role in The Phantom Menace (with Alien³ and Wayne's World 2 among his other credits), with Phil Eason also working on Episode I. Turns out Yaddle is a female of the same green species as Yoda and Baby Yoda. Eason (d. 2021) also did puppetry work on Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Rajia Baroudi was a voice on a couple episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. (Yours if you want it, Zippy!) She's done lots of other voice acting over the years and appeared on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers back in the day. That card is a parallel numbered /10 on the back, so that's cool. Oh, and Lady Yoda is /25.

 

Walking Dead hits don't do much for me, never having watched the show, but still cool to beef up my non-sport collection or possibly use as trade bait (Specifically, I would love to get that creepy zombie sketch card out of my house! lol). Katelyn Nacon and Corey Brill (#'d 10/10) are the autos. The dual relic (#'d 10/50) confused me because those people look familiar but it's the characters' names, not giving the actors' real names anywhere on the card. But I looked them up and the guy is Steven Yeun (most familiar to me from season one of Beef) and the lady is Lauren Cohan (who I've seen pop up in various TV shows over the years). Sonequa Martin-Green is less familiar to me, but she played a main character on the show Star Trek: Discovery and was on a couple episodes of New Girl.
 

Some more solid pro wrestling cards.

UFC. I don't know any of these guys, but I looked up the Frank Mir 10/10 red parallel, and there's one on COMC for $50, for whatever that's worth (Less than $50, one would assume). Like with the Walking Dead cards, I'd be down to trade these burly dudes for cards that better suited my interests, and may eventually put them on my TCDB for-tradelist.

Michelle Waterson here will probably stick in my collection, however, because she's kinda cute and has a cool looking signature.
 

We're getting close to the end now, with this group of misc. cards, including a Candace Parker commemorative flag patch (numbered to 19/99), a layered Emmitt Smith card (075/194), and a James Taylor "First Pitch" orange refractor. My face lit up when I noticed the serial number...

Christmas Card! I've seen fire and I've seen rain, but I never thought I'd see a James Taylor card among my 12/25's. There were 2 or 3 other /25 cards in the lot.. and I've always got my fingers crossed for lucky #12 in the run, but rarely score them organically like this.

And the rest! A few PC guys in here. The Luke Weaver RC auto might be ok if it wasn't from that ugly-ass Topps Gallery set. Brandon Finnegan is the one non-blue ink auto (17/25). A couple Yadi's. Abe Vigoda base card to go along with the relic from before. Clive Walford is the Raiders auto at the bottom. 

So yeah, this was a pretty sweet lot that I got for not much effort on my part. Not like I've listened to those CDs in years (and have them ripped to a hard drive for when I do want to hear them), but I can appreciate the guy's quest and glad I could help him out.. especially since it resulted in a nice boost to my card collection. Also neat to do a trade with somebody who worked at Topps.

Oh, and the same day I got this package, I also received my haul from The Collector's anniversary celebration extravaganza, so that's another fun "rip" on deck. I'll try to post about that stuff on his blog's special day (8/21), per his request.

Twelve new 12/25 cards

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I've picked up several additions to my collection of 12/25 "Christmas Cards" this year and rounded up 12 to show off on this special day. We're gonna ring the Bell to kick things off...

You can't spell "Jingle Bells" without J. Bell! Number 12 in our countdown is Jay Bell, though it might be hard to read with his name, being xfracted as it is.

Bell was among the game's better middle infielders during the 90s. Kinda weird for me when a guy I remember from when I was a kid in the overproduction era-- a non-star at that-- sticks around long enough to also have Xfractors and the like. Jay got a ring with the '01 D-backs and wrapped up his career in 2003 with the Mets. He didn't get any "final tribute" cards in 2004, so 2003 is his swan song for playing-days cards.

Mixing it up with some non-baseball. I like my Christmas Card Collection to be diverse, after all. Colby Jones and Julian Phillips are the basketball duo. Not familiar with either of them, but I got it for a few bucks in a recent combined-shipping eBay purchase. But the hockey card I targeted because the guy is named Gavin Brindley, and I sure love scoring a double bullseye of a guy named Gavin on a 12/25 card. (A rare triple bullseye is coming up in a moment, so get psyched for that! lol)

Are you ready for some football? I'm not-- haven't given much attention to pigskin for several years now-- but I'm omnivorous when it comes to my card collection. Another couple combined-shipping throw-ins. BJ Ojulari is a kinda fun name and Zach Charbonnet is representing my "local" team up here in the PNW. These are numbered on the back, so let's take a look...

Gah, sorry about the blurry photos. Like I said last post, I'm hoping the light box I asked for got this Christmas helps sharpen up my photos on the blog (elsewise I guess I should maybe try scanning more, but I tend to prefer the quickness of snapping photos.)

Another basketball guy in Villanova's Mark Armstrong, plus a soccer guy named Michele De Gregorio.

 12/25 on the back.

Another Gavin makes it into this year's countdown. A first round pick in 2022, Cross has spent the past couple seasons in Double-A with middling results, so his cards have been more affordable than back when he was a hotter prospect. Might as well pick up a cheap 12/25 auto when the opportunity presents itself.

Here's the triple bullseye I mentioned. Card numbered 12/25, of my favorite team, of a guy who went to the same high school as me.

I've had a big Trenton Brooks post drafting for a while now, but I haven't published it because I keep adding parallels and always seem to have another one in the mail, so I wait for that, but then there's another one also coming, and it goes on like that. LOL But no, sometime soon I'll stick a fork in that post and show off a bunch of modern parallels-- really my first taste of "rainbowing" in the Fanatics era. But for now, here's the lone Christmas Card of Trenton Brooks I've scored so far.

I wanted to kick up my Stephen Strasburg PC with a nice card, and this Ginter refractor fit the bill. He's looking like he just saw mommy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe, and he's not sure how to process it. The 12/25 serial number is in the lower right. He's another local "went to the same school" guy, but SDSU this time, and a rival high school from my conference. His pro career was hampered by injuries, but he had a few strong seasons including a big 2019 when he helped lead the Nationals to a World Series Championship. 

Pete Alonso brings some star power as we near the end of the post. This 2024 Tier One parallel looks great with Mets colors. I picked this one up over the summer, back when the Mets were in the playoff picture, before things fell apart and the team got dismantled. Best of luck to the Polar Bear in Baltimore.

Last card of the post..

Bobby Witt, Jr. has been putting together an impressive career and he's still just 25 years old. Took me a while to find a nice auto and land it in my price range. Happy with this Five Star Christmas Card featuring enough rainbow foil to help it pop.

There you have it. Again, Merry Christmas and/or enjoy your 12/25 this year!

Incoming birthday/holiday cards

Merry Christmas Eve, everybody! Yep, it's also my b-day, too. 

A while back, there was a Blog Bat-Around about cards numbered with your birthday. With mine so late in the year, it takes an extra large set to include a number 1224 in the checklist. But yeah, I've rounded up 3 of them so far...

A couple minor league sets from the 80s and one from the Conlon Collection.

Gotta love old TCMA, and I do kinda collect this Brian Giles as like quirky side-PC to my big PC of the better-known Brian Giles.

And I ripped a lot of those blue '89 ProCards packs back in the day. I started collecting in 1990, so they were "older" and I was looking for the hot '90 rookies, and yeah, even Mark Gardner had some hype, and went on to a respectable MLB career, sticking around through the 2001 season. 

I don't have much to say about Joe Bowman, but he was probably cool too. I think I threw these cards into my Sportlots cart months ago, and eventually placed orders with the respective sellers. Has anybody ordered from Sportlots lately? The past week or so, it's taken me to new "improved" shopping cart which doesn't let you separate between sellers. Not cool! Is it just me, like maybe I have too many cards in my cart, or did they really F up their cart interface? That'd be a bummer if they took a dump so soon after COMC also took a turn for the worse too. Running out of good, big online card shops to use! :(

The backs. The number on the Giles is in small text after the copyright.

-  - -o 

Now for some incoming cards that some blogger buds sent to brighten up my holidays.

First up is a nice package from Dennis at TMV. Sorry these, photos are dark, by the way. I took them last night, knowing the 24th and 25th would be busy, but I could sneak in some blogging time hanging out with the fam. (Keeping it tight for time.) But yeah, one thing I asked for this year is a light box, so I'm hopeful that I'll kick up my card-photographing game soon. But yeah, here's a sweet quad relic of Marcus Lattimore #'d 12/25 with a Gavin Sheets relic sporting a pinstripe.

Gavins!

More Gavins!

Good stuff. Thanks, Dennis! Very nice of you to keep up the string of holiday mailings that I've been lucky enough to be included in. I'll hit you back with a thank-you soon.

-  --o

Next up are some signed cards from Japan. 2011 Topps is a fav modern design for me, and Neshek is a PC guy.

And some Bowman cards, including a couple former Padres I remember rooting for in years past.

Thank you, Zippy! Merry Christmas, even if this wasn't specifically meant as a holiday surprise. 

-  - -o

Last is Bob from Best Bubble surprising me with a yuletide-timed card package.

Gotta pay the Gavin Tax when you send me cards, lol. Nice variety here.

This trio of neat Tony Gwynns off the beaten path might've been the highlight for me.

More Padres, including some autos.

Attractive ladies!

The backs.

More lovely gals.

Big thanks, Bob! I've been working on a package for you, and hope to get that sent out soon.

Thanks again to these folks for the cards, and happy holidays to everybody reading. I'll be trying to get a Christmas post out tomorrow if I can find the time to type it up.