Renfroe, Hunted

 
After being the lucky winner of the Diamond King's big serial-numbered lot giveaway last December, I got greedy and spoke up for the Golden Mirror variation he generously put up for grabs the other day. But it had been up for a few hours with no one yoinking it, so I figured it'd be ok for me to raise my hand. Royals fans probably don't think much of Renfroe after he struggled with the team in 2025, getting released in May. 

But I have a big Hunter Renfroe PC, accumulated mostly passively by virtue of him being a hot rookie on my favorite team back during the height of my pack-ripping and blogger-trading days, and he was one of those rookies that Topps went nuts over, with tons of rookie-year cards produced. But yeah, he's a guy I collect and I fondly remember him cranking some big home runs for my Padres back in the late 2010s.

As a nod to Kevin, I thumbed through my Renfroe PC with the intention of picking out 5 highlights to feature on the blog, and well...

 
Over a decade on, I still have a boner soft spot for 2015 Bowman/Bowman Chrome parallels, and had to gather these half dozen together.

A couple solid Panini cards here, with a Draft Picks autograph and a Rated Rookie /10 artist proof.

The last card I picked to show off is a Clearly Authentic rookie auto, obtained in trade with Coffee Matt a few years back, if I recall correctly. 

I've been doing lots of organizing and straightening up in the cardroom lately, and was excited to find the fabric sample book I had misplaced, so don't be surprised to see more funky background in my card photos this year, occasionally spicing up the plain white backdrops. In fact, here are a couple alternate shots of the clear card: 

Doesn't look like Hunter has latched on with another team since Kansas City cut him last season, so that might be all she wrote for his playing career, but here's wishing him the best. Thanks again to Kevin for the giveaway and to you all for stopping by.

Oh hai, trades

Sorry it's been a somewhat quiet Blue Tape And Pull Tab Awareness Week this year. Besides the cool "Babe Ruth TTM return" of my last post, I've hit a little patch of blogging malaise.

But let's check out some recently received cards from the cardsphere.

2018 A&G Tommy Wiseau auto! While I'm not one of those people who can quote The Room's screwy dialog much beyond the classic "Oh hai, Mark" and "You're tearing me apart!", I still got a kick out of the film and the film inspired by it, The Disaster Artist. So when I saw he was included in Ginter's auto checklist this year, I made a mental note to keep an eye out.

Then sure enough, Chris at Nachos Grande was lucky enough to pull the card from one of his boxes. We were able to work out a sale/trade where I sent him some money and a couple Barry Larkin cards I had set aside for him.

So yeah, neat pop culture addition to my non-sports collection.

Since it's Blue Tape And Pull Tab Awareness Week, let's look at how the card was shipped (and hope I don't piss anyone off by being critical).

You can see he went with a used bubble mailer. (A recent Twitter question going around recently is "are you ok with being sent cards in used bubble mailers?" My answer is, yes, absolutely. I've personally never bought new bubble mailers in my life.) The Wiseau card was in a top loader, and in a team bag sandwiched with a few Padres commons as buffer cards. (Funny enough, I also used unwanted Padres cards for buffer cards for the Barry Larkin cards I sent him in a PWE.) Everything is looking good so far, but then he runs into trouble.

It appears the team bag was previously used as it's not very sticky anymore, so Chris put on a piece of tape to keep the cards from falling out. The first misstep was using tan masking tape instead of blue painters tape. Add to that the fact no pull tabs were made, and I'm afraid I have to give a good-natured finger-wagging to Chris here. Even though I have fingernails now (this time last year I was a chronic nailbiter), it still took me a moment or two longer than it should have to peel up the tape. And when I did, the tape stuck to the team bag and stretched it out, ruining the team bag. I already have more used team bags than I'll ever need, so it's not a big deal, but still hate to throw one away.

Overall, the card arrived safe and wasn't too much of a pain to get to. So yeah, if I were to grade this packaging job, I'd give Chris a B+. If he would have used blue tape with pull tabs, it'd be an easy A. (Even one or the other would have likely gotten him to A-.)

Thanks for working out the deal with me, Chris! I hope dissecting your mailing methods for educational purposes doesn't bother you. (Hey, he's a teacher, he can handle it.)

-  -  - ---o

Next is a PWE from Jeremy at Topps Cards That Never Were.

He fit 3 cards into 2 top-loaders, taped together. Ok class, what has Jeremy done wrong here?
That's right, off the bat you can tell he didn't use blue tape or make pull tabs. Those top-loaders are going straight into the trash, as there's no way I'm gonna try to chip off all that scotch tape. But give him credit for putting paper over the top loader openings so the cards won't get stuck on the tape. (And don't fool yourself thinking that isn't a real possibility: JBF once sent me a vintage card that got damaged that way.)

I'm gonna have to give Jeremy a B here. The cards arrived safe, but the packaging could have been better.

(I'm sorry if I'm sounding like an asshole in this post! I'm just trying to keep it real in respect to Blue Tape And Pull Tab Awareness Week. I'm totally cool with these packaging jobs and would not hesitate to trade with Chris and Jeremy again. Just trying to point out that there's room for improvement out there with how people mail cards.)

Anyways, let's get to the cards he sent:

Nice! Three set needs for my 1982 Topps build, including a pair of HOFers.

I'm in the middle of collating my set, now that I'm down to just a few cards remaining. While it's down to just 6, unfortunately I think I might have to add to my wantlist because I'm finding a few cards in there that are beat-up enough to where I'd want to upgrade them.

Not these 3 from Jeremy, though, these are great. Thanks, man! I'll round up a return for you shortly!

------

Last for today is a PWE from Matt at Sport Card Collectors shooting me a little bonus to make up for the mixup in our last trade.

Matt didn't use tape on the cards, rather went the method of using a cut 3-pocket from a 9-pocket page. That seems to work fine, though I'd get nervous doing that for valuable cards, as it's not exactly the most secure way to ship. I at least like to wrap the pocket in a piece of paper or thin cardboard. (Writing "DO NOT BEND" on the envelope probably doesn't do much.) But I'll give it a B+.

A couple Treas and a green Renfroe.

And a couple Tim Duncan rookie cards I needed for the PC. Awesome.. thanks, Matt!

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Cardblogger Con NW '18 recap

Five card-bloggers getting together for drinks and conversation. Really good time! Gcrl (Cards As I See Them), Rod (Padrographs), Kerry (Cards on Cards), Ken (Cardboard Hogs), and myself (Baseball Card Breakdown). If you know of more cardbloggers getting together at once, let me know, but otherwise I'll consider this the record-breaker for most cardbloggers hanging out in person. Lots of fun, swapping cards and sharing stories.

I don't have much time for blogging today (and I'm a little hungover), so I'll just cover the cards I got from Ken now, and get to the others soon.

Ken was a late invite, which I feel bad about, but I know he's got his hands full these days with work and his kids, and hasn't blogged much in the past year, so I didn't think the chances were good that'd he'd be able to make it into downtown for the meetup. But I'm glad I thought to invite him better late than never, and that it worked with his schedule, because he's a good dude and definitely a welcome addition to the group.

Kicking things off with neat inserts and parallels of young Padres. Sounds like Renfroe might be on the trading block.

Pair of Margots. Hoping for a big '18 season from him.

Some San Diego favorites from the past. Rollie gets in on consecutive posts, featured here on a Berger's Best reprint.

Nice batch of Bowman prospects.

Full team set of 2005 Portland Beavers! Love the mascot card. I kind of regret not catching any Beavers games before they went away a few years ago. (Today happens to be my 9 year anniversary of moving to Portland.)

And a few more Padres (and USA Drew Pomeranz).

Good stuff.. thanks, Ken. Great seeing you. Sorry I was out of Redskins and had to resort to a custom-heavy lot hitting some of your PC guys, but hope you got a kick out of them.

And thanks again to the other fellas who came out to the get-together. I hope we can do it again sometime. Looking forward this weekend to going through the rest of the cards I brought home thanks to you guys.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

2017 Rookie Class set from Topps On Demand

Topps put out a handful of On Demand sets in 2017. They're in the vein of Topps Now and Topps Throwback Thursdays sets, and available for a limited time through Topps.com. I pulled the trigger on the "2017 Topps MLB Rookie Class" set. It was available near the end of the year, and was pretty obviously just an excuse for Topps to cram a few more "RC logo" cards of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger before the calendar ran out. But I thought it looked cool and was a reasonable price.

Per Cardboard Connection: Utilizing  a new design, the 12th set in 2017 On Demand is for the baseball rookies. Every 2017 Topps MLB Rookie Class set features at least 28 cards, including the full 20-card base set, five random Rookie of the Year Award Winner inserts for Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, and three (with a chance for four) bonus parallels. These can be either Orange parallels or Image Variations. The possible 29th card is a numbered parallel.

Looks like they had a print run of 2828 sets.

Here are cards 1-6. Definitely an early-90s vibe with this design. I started collecting in 1990, so it resonates with me, though I'd understand if older collectors turned their nose up at it.

Cards 7-12. With an early 90s-inspired design and the name "Rookie Class" I wonder if they were going for a Saved By The Bell / Beverly Hills 90210 theme. Maybe I'm just reading into it.

And the rest of the base set, numbers 13 through 20. I like that my often-underrepresented Padres got 2 cards in the 20-card checklist (Renfroe and Margot). I'll split the set up for my PCs, though I probably won't trade away the rest anytime soon for fear that I might decide to start collecting one of these guys down the road. Plus it's nice to know I own the set, even if it's spread around my collection.

Here are the 5 ROY inserts I got with my set. Again, just pumping out a few more Judge and Bellinger RCs into the hobby. Kinda silly, but I'll happily add them to the respective PCs.

Here are the parallels I got. Not bad! The Bellinger is an orange parallel of a ROY insert. The Benintendi is an image variation as well as being an orange parallel. The oranges aren't numbered. The only numbered parallel I got was the blue Alex Reyes /49. Honestly, that card was my only disappointment with the set, since Reyes' 2017 season was lost due to Tommy John and so I'm not sure why he was even included in this set that wasn't put together till the season was over. He still has his rookie status for 2018. But I guess Topps can't use the RC logo on his 2018 cards since they already used it on his 2017 cards. According to Cardboard Connection, you aren't guaranteed a numbered parallel with each set, so I shouldn't really complain about landing one.

Where I really lucked out was with this image variation of Aaron Judge's base card. It's a bit off-center, but still a nice pull.

Here's what the backs look like. It's on the same stock as 2017 Topps Now cards with the semi-refractor sheen on the back.

So that's that. The 5 different Judge rookies alone made it worth the purchase price to me (1.25 blasters), and the orange Bellinger and Benintendi parallels were also sweet pulls.. and if Alex Reyes makes a strong comeback, that blue parallel will look a lot better to me.

Thanks for reading.

Smoothing over a trade with Sport Card Collectors

Friendship. 

I've traded a lot in recent years with my bud who runs the Sport Card Collectors blog, but it's usually swapping blind PWEs... he gets some NY Giants and maybe a couple Yankees or a Griffey.. and I get some Padres and maybe a few PC guys. Once in a while, though, we break out the big guns and negotiate a trade involving better cards.

Sometimes working out a trade like that can be stressful, and under the pressure of year-end work stuff at the time, I overreacted to something and things nearly went off the rails. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and we were able to keep our trading running smoothly.

This sweet Hunter Renfroe autograph was the card that kicked off our deal. It's a nice looking red parallel #'d /50. I really like these 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic cards. I wish the product had a less dumb name, though. Maybe like Topps Translucent? (might be too similar to Topps Transcendent.) Topps Crystalline? Topps Glass? Topps Lucid Edge? Topps Liquid Prime? Even just Topps Clear would be better than Clearly Authentic. I'm still waiting for Topps Clearly Inauthentic which will feature the same cards but with sloppily forged signatures by interns.
But enough of that, it's a nice card. Another thing Topps should do is include a few Tek-like base cards in each pack. The one-card-box approach Topps has been using lately is so risky for the consumer. At least some decent base cards and a parallel could take the sting out of pulling an auto of somebody not worth much.

Here's another uncredited appearance of Austin Hedges. Also a Chris Brown buyback and a gold parallel Christian Friedrich.

I've gone on record as not being much of a fan of the Topps Gallery revival, but I always love seeing Big Dave Winfield in the brown and gold. A tidbit I found for my new @PadresBreakdown Twitter account is that today is the anniversary of Dave's HOF election. Cool.

OTD in 2001, Dave Winfield is elected to the Hall of Fame along with former teammate Kirby Puckett on their first year of eligibility. Dave chose to go in as a Padre, which rankled the Yankees. Here's a Yankees auto card that I made a Padres overlay for. https://t.co/vwwvQ9AjYt pic.twitter.com/htNePVRMU8

— Padres Breakdown (@PadresBreakdown) January 16, 2018

Ha, I used the same photo for my custom overlay as the picture on the Gallery card.

This looks like 5 of the 8 total cards in the Padres team set of 2017 Bowman Draft. Nice. (I'm now just missing Buddy Reed, Fernando Tatis Jr, and Mason House.)

Getting into some good stuff here! Reggie Lawson blue mini, Blake Hunt (careful saying that name out loud!) refractor auto, and a couple numbered Campusano cards sharing the same photo.

More bright young Padres.

The package wasn't all Padres, though, as SCC snuck in a couple Gavins I needed, too. That's the first licensed Sheets card in my collection (I've bid on a few of his Bowman autos but keep getting narrowly outbid at the end), and it's a refractor, to boot.

Finally, this was the card at the heart of our big trade. MacKenzie Gore was the Padres first pick in last year's draft, and he's their #1 prospect right now. This 2017 Bowman's Best green refractor is #'d /99 and makes a great addition to my collection of upcoming Padres. I had recently picked up a Leaf Metal auto of his, but again, licensed cards are always more desirable. Here's hoping this kid is the real deal and makes his way up to Petco in the next couple years.

Thanks again for the trade, SCC! Your return package went out yesterday.. hope you like!

I also just recently mailed out cards to Angels In Order, Jedi Jeff, Tim B., and ARPSmith.

Note for people pulling cards from my wantlists: Adam is kindly supplying many cards from my 1980 Topps needs, as well as big lots from 1978 Topps, 1984 Fleer, 1984 Donruss, 1985 Donruss, 1987 Fleer, 1986 Fleer, 1982 Topps, and 1983 Topps. So you should probably hold off gathering up cards for me from those particular sets until I'm able to update/create my wantlists for them.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Dimebox delivery

I already showed the vintage portion of this package a few days ago, but here are the modern cards Dimebox Nick sent my way recently.

Always a treat to score a new Aaron Judge card in a trade, pictured here with a few other young studs.

Old-timers. Love the Kellogg's Mad Dog!

Nice lot of Beltre and Altuve.

I'm happy to take Nick's Shooter dupes, as I can usually find one or two I need.

Some shiny Padres.

Less shiny Padres (though that glare on the photo is trying its hardest to make them shine). Some good ones here, but I might have to give the nod to the dufex Caminiti as my fav.

Renfroe and Margot got shoved into pretty much every Topps product in 2017 (really the only question was whether they called Margot Manuel or Manny). I'm sure most of you collectors are sick of their cards by now, though I'm still happy to receive them, preferably cards I don't already have. Hopefully these guys build off their decent rookie campaigns next year for the Padres.

Brian Giles was represented.

I can already see my "We Didn't Start the Fire" Binder project causing me consternation in trade packages. Now any time I get a card that isn't easily identifiable as something I collect (e.g. a PC guy, set need, random Padre, etc), I have to ask myself, "Hmm.. Is this intended for the Billy Joel binder?" Especially non-sport cards. Traders, myself included, will sometimes just toss in random cards for no reason other than maybe the recipient would like/need it more than me. But now I'm on Joel Patrol with such cards. haha

With this trio, I know "Wheel of Fortune" will slot in right ahead of "Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide." And I admit I had to check the spreadsheet, but "Marciano" goes right before "Liberace, Santayana goodbye." As for the Civil Rights Act card, that one isn't as obvious, but I think this is for the "Alabama" slot. ("Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ultimately led to the removal of the last race laws in the USA. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr figure prominently.")

(I also got a recent mailing from Bo with cards for the binder, but that'll have to wait for a future post.)

Let's wrap up the highlights from Nick's package with this oddity...

Ok, this is a weird one that I had to ask myself if it was for the Billy Joel Binder, as I've never collected Lincecum (and honestly was relieved that Zippy Zappy's oft-repeated prediction of the Padres signing Timmy at the sputtering end of his career never came to pass).

It's an interesting oddball that seems to from 2008. I'm pretty sure Nick collects Lincecum, so he must've already had another of the 500 copies out there. As a guy who enjoys making quirky custom cards, I can appreciate this one. But yeah, it's a weird one!

Thanks again for all the cards, Nick!

It's Raining Refractors

Ok, I dragged it out long enough, so let's finish documenting my haul from the October card show. You might want to put on your sunglasses for this one.. it's nothing but a big stack of shiny refractors.

Xfractors this year are apparently exclusive to Wal-Mart Mega Boxes. Verlander has been very impressive since the trade to Houston. Rounding out this quartet are the face of the Padres, Wil Myers, plus native San Diego boys Cole Hamels and Adam Jones.

Something's a little fishy here... a big lot of fishfractors! (That's what I call these scaly-looking things because I refuse to call them by Topps' official name of "Prism Refractors" which was obviously just to antagonize Panini who already had their own Prizm brand.) Several good names here, though Dexter Fowler caught the light best in the photo.

And a few more, horizontal this time.

Going back to 2016 for this pair of rival teams.

Now we're getting into the regular refractors. They might seem a little muted following all those fishfractors, but still very attractive cards.

Inadvertently grabbed an extra of these Beltres, so let me know if you'd like me to set one aside for you.

I think I've decided not to do a separate "trade bait" post from this show's haul, but I did score some good stuff to add to my trade box. I seemed to especially end up with interesting Giants cards at the show, such as this pair of negative refractors (also known as the "Topps Is Out Of Ideas" parallel). So any Giants collectors should hit me up for a trade sometime soon (ARPSmith, you out there?) Also some neat Brewers for next time Tony L. or Matt Prigge or whoever has some cards for me.

A couple Finest refractors.

And finally for today, a pair of blue wave refractors from 2015 Bowman. Never heard of these guys, but I won't likely pass up a wave refractor for a quarter.
Let's see..
Andre Wheeler didn't have a pretty 2017, still grinding down in the low minors.
Victor Alcantara pitched well enough to earn a September call-up with Detroit this year after coming over from the Angels for Cameron Maybin.

So there's that! A whole lotta shiny. Thanks for swinging by.