Christmas Cards 2023

I still buy new cards for my "12/25" collection every once in a while. Here's the big one I picked up this year..

Flipping through a childhood binder of mine recently reminded me that the Big Unit is a guy I've PC'd since my first days in the hobby, proudly paging a bunch of early Randy Johnson cards together. I'll loosely count that as a prospecting success contrasted against cards of Kevin Maas and Pat Listach in the binder. And I've enjoyed casually adding to the PC after returning to the hobby as an adult, but I had never gotten around to landing an autograph. So I had been keeping an eye out for one-- specifically a Christmas Card, since a lot of times I figure if I've decided to shell out a few bucks for an auto, might as well go all-in for one that's a double-bullseye for my collection, right? I eventually ended up with this cool metallic sig from 2023 Topps Tier One. Looks great and caps off the PC nicely.

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Sportscards From The Dollar Store showed off his Robert Smith auto the other day, so hey, I'll go ahead and show mine! Again, I found a 12/25 issue to snag, settling for a stickergraph. I was planning to make a custom overlay for it anyways; See...

I made a custom in the style of the officially-released MST3K autographs to show Robert's brief guest-spot on the show. So that's laid on top of the real card, and since it's me, I had to extend the window for the signature to include my favorite serial number.

My wife isn't the fan of the show that I am, but she allows me to force a little on her on my birthday, so we've got a double-feature of the classic MST3K Christmas episodes playing today.

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I don't really "keep up with modern cards" as far as my player collections of past greats, because unless maybe you just focus on one lower-tier guy, there's just too much being churned out these days. But sure, every once in a while it's fun to buy a shiny new Hoyt Wilhelm card. And of course it's easier to sucker me in when it's a Christmas Card.

Ho Ho Hoyt!

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I'm my house, the Ryan Express is representing on the tree this year.

I didn't really get the idea till it was too late in the season, but assuming I'm still side-hustling late next year, I should do something with tree ornament cardart along these lines. Right? Mixing lots of red and green, maybe even ham it up adding Santa hats and such.

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Last for today, here's a Christmas nice gift I got from my buddy Doug that I figured I'd throw into the post. He got me a nice personalized capo and pick. I've told the story before, but it was back around the heyday of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice when Doug and I would b.s. about our forthcoming career in hip-hop. He was MC Doolay and I was DJ Defgav, and that's how I got the "defgav" handle that I use online sometimes. Funny how life works out. Years ago he got married to an awful woman back home in East County San Diego, then moved up here after he got divorced, and has since married a lovely woman. While I didn't introduce them or anything, hey, I was motivation for him to start fresh in Portland, so it makes me happy to at least play a part in a couple finding each other. He's a good dude.

That'll wrap up the post. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Christmasy Cards pt. 1

Just about Christmas. Here are some festive cards.

I likely I have more red/green card siblings, but this couple pairs jumped to mind.

While the refraction on this 2021 Chrome Anniversary parallel was a bit of a letdown in hand-- barely more shine than a foilboard card-- I was still very happy to pick up a Hoyt Wilhelm Christmas Card earlier this year.

Ho Ho Hoyt!

Bruce Sutter sadly passed away earlier this year. When this card popped up on eBay in the wake of his death, I overpaid some for it, but not because he just died but because it was numbered 12/25 and so I would have overpaid for it anytime.

RIP, Mr. Sutter.

The rough and tough Charlie Hough!

Numbered 12/25 as well!

Last Topps Retired card for this post is a very merry Maz. Woo, that's a lovely card!

12/25 to boot!

My buddy Wes sent me a Christmas Card with a card for christmas inside.

Thanks Wes (and Amy)!

Bo hooked me up with some '92 Leaf black gold needs from a recent haul of his. Thanks, Bo!

Here's Ruby enjoying some of our recent inclimate weather. 

K, guys, I know Baseball Card Breakdown had a down year-- not even nominated in the "Favorite Blogs to Read" category this year at Nachos awards, ouch!-- but I'm tryin to get on anti-anxiety meds that should hopefully help me get my shit together. Plus I may be "back to the office" in 2023, and honestly that would be good for the blog because the heyday of this blog was written during downtime at work, pre-covid. So we'll see.

Christmasy post part 2 is coming in a few hours with all the "holiday surprise" '91 Fleer doodles.

See ya soon, and Merry Christmas!

A couple quick bites of Kellogg's customs

End of an era! The home printer I've used for pretty much every custom card I've ever printed out recently died. I had been planning on getting a new printer later this year anyways, so I wasn't too upset by the situation. That old Canon served me well, but had been more and more streaky over the years.

Anyways, here are the final customs printed out on its last gasps.

Posting this now specifically because Hoyt Wilhelm was born 100 years ago today, and I wanted to do my little part to celebrate. Hoyt! Hoyt! Hoyt! The design is 1972 Kellogg's. There aren't a lot of Dodgers photos of Wilhelm available, so I colorized a b&w one in an attempt at freshness. It printed out a little weird-- trying to print a third copy of this was the printer's death blow--  so I'll likely try again once I've got the new printer up and running and hope for improved results. But still happy with this oddball-adjacent entry to my Hoyt PC.

A couple weeks before the Hoyt, I made this 1973 Kellogg's Dave Winfield. Like with the Hoyt, these are "cards that could have been", technically, both having played during those seasons. Not too far fetched that Kellogg's might've beat Topps to the punch by including Winfield in their '73 set, though his debut was June 19, 1973. But like if they came out with a little Kellogg's Update set later that year, this card would have been a great fit. LOL.

Both the card backs were more time-consuming than ideal-- Hoyt with all those stats, Dave with the big write-up-- but I have a hard time leaving my custom backs too "unfinished" or they bug me.

Thanks again to my old Canon printer for the years of service, the frustrating son of a bitch that it was. I'm staying away from Canon for a while, giving HP a shot now. Hopefully it works out well and I come up with plenty more customs to show off on the blog and share with my trader buddies for years to come.

Hoyt Sweet Hoyt

Some big news for me: My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home! Yep, we found a house we liked over the weekend, put in an offer yesterday, and it was accepted today. So hopefully that all goes smoothly and we start moving in soon. It's only about 5 minutes away from the house we've been renting for the past few years, so the move shouldn't be too rough. The new place is in a better location, and the house is nicer but a little smaller. I'm a bit stressed out, but also excited to finally have a "forever home" of my own lined up. Lots of projects on the horizon to keep me busy, I'm sure.

One such project will be setting up a card room, or maybe some would call it a "Den of Geek"...

Anybody else get this "junk mail" last month? I'm not sure how I ended up on the mailing list, but I received this eBay magazine that focuses on trading cards. I skimmed through it a little and it was fine, but I really perked up when I noticed there was a coupon code.

I unfortunately wasn't able to use the $25 "HAPPY25" code going around that only seems to work for eBay accounts that've been around since the 90s-- my current eBay account was created in 2004, though I did have an old account before that-- but at least this $10 code made for a nice consolation.

After overthinking what to spend it on as the window to use it crept closer (end of August), I eventually settled on a vintage Hoyt Wilhelm I needed.

This 1954 Bowman was listed at $10.31, so after the coupon, it ran me just 31¢ (free shipping, and I live in a state with no sales tax-- Oh man, not looking forward to having to pay property tax now... that's where they get ya in Oregon to make up for no sales tax). Hoyt is one of my favorite guys to collect, though I've still got some vintage holes to fill. In fact, this is my first Bowman Hoyt. It's the middle child of his 3 Bowman issues; he's also got a 1953 Bowman Black & White and a 1955 Bowman card.

Here's the back. The card is in decent shape. You can find it closer to $5 on COMC, so maybe it wasn't the shrewdest use of my free money, but whatever, I'm happy with the pickup. Glad to land a vintage Hoyt need, and for just 31¢. Of course the big boy I'd like to score someday is his '52 Topps high-numbered rookie, but that's a very expensive card, and with my finances now being cramped due to buying a house, I probably won't be splurging on cardboard for a while.

But yeah, exciting times here at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ! Thanks for stopping by.

Big Ol' Trade Post

Hey, here are a bunch of cool cards that I've received over the past couple weeks from friendly collector folk.

Holy heck, check this out! Giancarlo Stanton 2010 Topps Chrome rookie refractor autograph! It may be off-center and have some surface scratches, but still a "big card" and not the caliber of card that typically shows up in your mailbox without some wheeling and dealing beforehand.

But yeah, the incredible Matthew Scott has been working on his big, mostly-Pirates collection and decided Giancarlo didn't really have a place. He asked if I was still collecting him. Yep! Maybe not with as much fervor since his trade to the Yankees, but still definitely a guy I collect. And this rookie auto is a nice crown jewel for my Stanton PC.

Numbered 104/499. Sweet! While I'm not rooting for the Yankees, generally speaking, I do hope Stanton has himself a great comeback season.


And if that RC auto wasn't a big enough boom on its own, along with it was this..

Wow! This 2013 Topps "Chasing History" auto ain't nothing to sneeze at either! The number of Giancarlo Stanton autographs in my collection tripled thanks to this mailing.

Bob Walk the Plank is still on hiatus for the most part, so you guys didn't get to see all the neat Pirates I mailed him a while back unless maybe you caught some highlights on Twitter. But yeah, I always try to sniff out good Pirates cards for Matt (and some left over for my other Bucco trader buds), and will hope to gather more for him before too long. Huge thanks again, Matt!

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Friend o' the blog Alex T. and I have been back to our routine where I help him out with some custom card projects and he returns the favor with cards. Here's a nice run from Mark Fidrych's playing days, including a pair of rookies.

And a couple Upper Deck factory sets! I already got '91 UD just a couple months ago from The Diamond King, but Alex had the '90 set I needed plus a '91 he didn't need and since there was room in the flat-rate box, he offered to throw it in for the heck of it. If anyone needs it, I'd be willing to sell it for just a smidge above the postage cost (or a trade equivalent). Otherwise maybe I'll open up the wrap and raid it for my many PCs; there are probably a few that are lacking '91 UD cards, believe it or not. But yeah, I'm excited about the 1990 set. I ripped a fair amount of that in my first year as a collector, but never came anywhere near completing it. I really need to thumb through this set sometime soon and let the familiar cards take me back to those days.

Alex surprised me with this Padres batting practice jersey. There's no name on the back, and he says it's unlikely to be player-worn (sorry I'm too lazy to relay the full background story he shared), but still cool. Size XL, it's too big for me, but if/when the Padres win the World Series, I might have to don this anyways. (I'll probably have filled out enough to fit into it by then, lol.)

Alex's collection has a focus on minor league cards. He knows I collect Tim Blackwell and so he hooked me up with some team sets featuring that marvelous mustache. Even if I already have some of these singles, it's pretty cool to have the full team sets, too.

A nice lot of early 90s black gold!

Here's a sealed '92 Topps pack with a multiplayer "Top Prospects" card showing on top that features a couple guys I collect, Ryan Klesko and Dave Staton. Neat!

Some more cards highlighted by a Dick Allen oddball I needed and the classic Bevacqua bubble card from 1976 Topps.

Alex was downright apologetic for including these customs he had made through a Topps promotion a few years back, but I think they're awesome. I already have a little minicollection of bloggers' cards going, so it's easy to stretch that into including blog-readers' cards too. Made sure to get his approval before posting them for privacy concerns.

Then if all that wasn't enough for the little project he had me working on (several copies of a custom minor league card for a friend of his), he sent a nice PWE on top of it shortly thereafter...

Another oddity for my Tim Blackwell PC, a Floyd auto I didn't have, a Templeton oddball I needed, and a pair of Rafael Garcia signed oddballs sponsored by Carta Blanca, a mexican beer (one of which intended for Rod if he has any interest). Also known as Ralph Garcia, he pitched in a few games for the Padres in the early 70s and is in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.

Thanks, Alex! Good stuff! I'll drop your customs in the mail by the end of the week.

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Here's another PWE full of '88 Fleer needs from reader David G., our third light swap along these lines. A cool thing about getting cards from David is he uses magazine cologne ads to wrap them in, so the cards come out smelling lovely and you get a bonus air freshener! Thanks, David! I'll send you back some Cardinals soon.

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Brett the Hoyt Wilhelm superfan graciously offered to send me a copy of Hoyt's 2020 Topps insert.. heck yeah! Always love adding new Hoyts to the PC. Thanks, Brett!

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And here's the last one for today. It's a package from Bob at the Best Bubble.

Big lot of pack-fresh 1976 Topps! These needs take me up to 36% complete with the set. Funny thing, these cards are all found around the back end of the set. So if you look at my '76 Topps wantlist, you'll see my haves are pretty sparse at first, but I'm in better shape once you hit #400.

More late 70s Topps needs including a few solid names. I'm really close with '79 Topps now, down to just 6 more needs to finish the set:
6 Strikeout Leaders - J.R. Richard / Nolan Ryan
115 Nolan Ryan
313 Dyar Miller (Dyar Miller?!)
369A Bump Willis (Blue Jays error variation)
412 Hank Aaron / Hack Wilson ATL RBI
610 Mike Schmidt (this one looks to be set aside for me already)

And still a ways to go with '78 Topps, but those few needs take me past 81% complete. Not too bad.

I've already got most of these Gavins, but at least a couple I didn't have. I just looked into what Gavin Cecchini is up to these days. He had gone to spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a minor league deal, but they released him a month or so ago. And before that he had moved to Australia to play baseball there, but then fled the country after the crazy brushfires decimated much of the continent. Not sure what's next for him, but wish him the best of luck.

Finally, Bob threw in a few ladies on cardboard. Always a nice touch.

Thanks, Bob! I'll try to round up a return package for you soon, but you might need to have some patience...

Gonna be a busy rest of July for me. Between the usual work craziness, and now trying to raise a tiny puppy who needs constant supervision, and plus my close friend from way back is going to be in town staying with us next week. So it'll likely be a while till I'm able to spend much quality time with cards.

Oh, I also got a nice box of cards dropped on my doorstep last week by Padrographs Rod, but this post is already pretty long, and I still need to sort that stuff out a bit, so I'll save that for another day.

Thanks for reading!

Hoyt! Hoyt! Hoyt!

I did some photoshop work for a Hoyt Wilhelm supercollector back in 2017 and then he ghosted me when I was expecting some neat Hoyt stuff promised my way in return. A bummer, but it happens.

Then after nearly 3 years of radio silence, Brett finally got back to me earlier this year, apologizing for life n' such putting my haul on the backburner. But in a glorious resolution to the story, he finally hooked me up with a fantastic package to knock the socks off a Hoyt collector such as myself.

We start off with an autographed postcard from Hoyt's swansong in Los Angeles. Nice!

Now we enter into a string of glossy 8x10s. Like with the postcard, this would be cool enough as is, but the fact it's signed only ratchets up the coolness more.

Another autographed photo. Big signature on this one, the last of the signed items here.

Print of a different shot from Hoyt's Dodger days.

And an action shot from Wrigley.

Awesome photo of a pair of baseball greats tipping their caps.

Another terrific print featuring Hank Aaron.

I'd better start doubling up these photos or the post will get huge.. but yeah, a couple nice White Sox 8x10"s.

Here we've got a press photo featuring Hoyt's son, plus a hometown newspaper feature that Brett helped provide some photos and information for from 2017.

Not sure how legible these photos are, but here's the article in case anyone wants to try zooming in to read it.

Very cool stuff!

But for this card collector, what I was most excited about was the set of custom cards Brett created...

This is a comprehensive batch of cards examining Wilhelm's life.

From his early amateur days, to his 21-year MLB career, through his stints as a minor league coach, it's all covered here.

The cards were not cheap for Brett to make, as he worked with a printshop to have them printed up, but he was gracious enough to honor my request to acquire a second set to give to fellow Hoyt-head, Nick from the Dimeboxes blog. I just wouldn't have been able to enjoy the cards to the fullest knowing my buddy Nick was left out of the Hoyt lovefest. But it all worked out and I was able to surprise him with his own set.

Here's a peek at the incredibly informative backs. Lots to digest here, and I still need to carve out time to read through them all.

Brett, huge thanks for the Hoyt mega-mailday! This stuff dwarfs the moderate work I did photoshopping a few pictures, so I'm in your debt.. Just let me know if I can ever lend a hand with anything for you.

Any fellow Wilhelm Warriors and Hoyt Hounds should be sure to check out Brett's new Hoyt Wilhelm Online Museum blog and corresponding Hoyt Wilhelm Fan Page Twitter account.