Retired Refractor Tom Terrific Trifecta

I've been collecting Topps Retired since just before I started blogging, and I've recently unlocked the achievement of completing a trifecta of refractor autographs from each of the 3 Retired releases.

Tom Seaver refractors from 2003, 2004, and 2005 sure look nice together. If only they could have shown him with Cincinnati for '04, it could have kinda visually recapped his career in cardform, but that's a minor complaint.

I should note that while this is the first time I've owned a refractor auto from all 3 Retired sets of one guy at one time, I have in my life had all 3 Robin Yount ref autos. A few years ago I got a good deal on a Yount '03 Retired refractor that I soon turned around and sold for a hefty profit to a guy working on the set (also sold him my Willie Mays from the same set for twice what I paid, and then later a Fred Lynn). At the time I already had an '04 Yount refractor, and not long thereafter I also got an '05 refractor, but didn't have all 3 at the same time. I've since grown a little more serious about collecting 2003 Retired refractors (and 2005... in addition to 2004 which has always been my #1), so I probably wouldn't make that same deal today. It's not a huge regret of mine, though I do hope to someday land another '03 Yount refractor (and Mays and Lynn). [I wonder how that guy's set is coming along.]

If you're curious, these are the players have autos in all 3 releases of Topps Retired Signature Edition:

Bobby Richardson
Brooks Robinson
Cal Ripken, Jr
Carlton Fisk
Dale Murphy
Don Mattingly
Duke Snider
Dwight Gooden
Ernie Banks
Frank Robinson
Gary Carter
Johnny Bench
Jose Canseco
Nolan Ryan
Orlando Cepeda
Ozzie Smith
Paul O'Neill
Ralph Kiner
Robin Yount
Rod Carew
Ron Santo
Stan Musial
Tom Seaver
Tony Gwynn
Vida Blue
Wade Boggs
Whitey Ford
Yogi Berra

I've got at least 1 Retired refractor from all these guys (2004, where I'm only missing Trammell [who isn't in '05]). Several of them I've got 2 of the 3, with '03 usually being the elusive one. Seems that set is a little more popular, with its clean design and dual photos, reminiscent of 1983 Topps. (Though really it's just a white-bordered remix of the blue 2003 Topps flagship design.)

But back to Tom Seaver, the 2005 was the last one I needed, and the only one I haven't shown off on the blog before, so let's take a closer look:

Those White Sox unis from the 80s are something else, eh? By the time Seaver got to Chicago, he wasn't quite the dominant ace of his younger days, but still a dependable starter. Compiled 17 complete games over that 2 and a half year span and picked up his 300th win with the club.

This card had been overpriced on eBay for a while. I added it to my watchlist to keep an eye on it, and eventually the seller sent out one of those private offers for like half off which brought it down to a fair price and I'd pulled the trigger. 

Full disclosure, its original case was scratched up and missing the hologram sticker seal, but I soon found myself with a good "donor" case to swap Tom into. I realize this could be frowned upon if I was intending to sell it.. like I'm "altering" it or whatever. But again, I'm not planning on selling it, I just like my Retired autos to have uniformity. And new collectors today really only care about graded cards, so whoever gets this card next will very possibly decide to send it in for grading, meaning it'd get busted out of the case anyways to be put into the grading company's slab. The card itself has been sheltered from the harsh world, only being outside of a Topps "uncirculated" hard case for a brief moment during the transfer.

One of the greats!

Thanks for reading.

Tom Seaver 2003 Retired refractor auto

Here's a big card I recently pulled the trigger on to celebrate my little raise & bonus last month.

Tom Seaver 2003 Topps Retired refractor!

Quality shot of The Franchise smiling with a bat on his shoulder at spring camp in front of some trees and a chain-link fence.

I had a base version of this auto a few years back, but ended up selling it (with the hopes of eventually scoring a refractor to fill the void).

And it's the Christmas Card! So to me this is the equivalent of a superfractor. lol

Always love picking up a new refractor for my Topps Retired collection, especially a legend like Tom Seaver.

Happy Holidays from your friends at Baseball Card Breakdown

Happy Holidays, everybody. 2020 is almost over and odds are 2021 will be at least a tiny bit better.

Among the toughest parts of 2020 for me was losing several baseball legends, such as Tom Seaver. I guess we all gotta go sometime, but still sucks. They'll live on in our collections, like this recent pickup for my Archives Reserve Master Set. A beauty!

Hey, a new autoGav! Gavin Stone is the latest Gavin-ograph added to my collection. The Central Arkansas right-hander was drafted 159th overall in the 2020 draft by the Dodgers, joining Gavin Lux as a dynamic duo of LA Gavins.

Numbered 12/25! Ho ho ho!

Following that up with another 12/25 Gavin I picked up earlier this year.

I also ended up with a pair of 1/1 autos, for what that's worth. Gavin Casas decided to withdraw his name from the 2020 draft and instead honor his commitment to Vanderbilt. Can't blame him. Wishing him a great collegiate career, and hopefully we see him as a high draft pick a little ways down the line. 

One more card to share today. Former Dodgers/Rays prospect Jose DeLeon. He got into 5 games for the Reds this past season, though he didn't have great results. But he seems like a good dude on social media. Hopefully he rebounds next year. Most interesting thing about this card for me....

Numbered 12/24! Christmas Eve Cards aren't too common, but it's nice to snag one cheap from time to time. It's my birthday, after all.

Ruby says Merry Christmas, too.

This has been a rough year for me, as for most folks. Haven't had the energy to be a very good trading partner (lagging on sending out cards) or blogger (post count way down this year, no contests/giveaways)-- between trying to figure out working from home during a pandemic and raising an exhausting pupper, I've been stretched a little thin. This coming year should be better, though.

Thanks for reading and wishing you all the happiest of holidays.

untitled post for November 18, 2019

I was watching the classic North By Northwest last weekend and browsed over to the film's Wikipedia page while I was at it. Turns out John Berardino, who has a small role as a cop, had been a baseball player. I looked up his cards and ended up pulling the trigger on this well-loved 1951 Bowman card. Apparently he went on to play Dr. Steven Hardy on General Hospital for over 30 years. Wow!

Beradino is the only person to have won a World Series (1948) and get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1993).

Being a card collector means never getting rid of a box before first asking yourself, "Could I store cards in this?" pic.twitter.com/7g93oOB6dX

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) November 14, 2019

I "salvaged" this box from work. With a length of 30", it might be a bit too long, but I'll probably find a way to make it work for cards.

Here's a Tom Seaver gif I made a few months back that I recently realized I hadn't posted to the blog yet. It was his 75th birthday yesterday.

Here's a gif I made for a Jimi Hendrix post over at my other blog, the 1991 MusiCards Blog. We're still working through the classic rock of the Legends subset. Gonna be at least a couple more months till we break into the 90s pop stuff.



Finally, I'll leave you with a little Calvin and Hobbes gif I whipped up today. The classic comic strip debuted on this date back in 1985.

Did someone say "contest"?

Psych, this isn't a contest post. Sorry. But here's a vintage contest card I picked up.

I kinda hate that I bought this card. If I was a kid back in 1957 and pulled it, I likely would have just thrown it away. And why did I need to spring for a PSA 3 copy? Nobody is bothering to counterfeit this. Oh well, whatever. I put in a bid and won it for an ok price. It's a card I need for my '57 set because I'm a completist and I guess it counts as an insert. There are 4 of these contest cards, with 4 different dates (this one being the "Saturday, May 25th" card).

If anyone is curious what the winning scores ended up being:

Detroit Tigers 3
Kansas City Athletics 5

Pittsburgh Pirates 6
Philadelphia Phillies 8

I probably would have chosen the glove.

Speaking of '57 Topps, gcrl surprised me with a couple cards for my setbuild the other day, one an upgrade and one a need. Thanks, Jim!

I've got 120 needs left to go. I think I'm gonna abandon my goal of completing 1957 Topps by the end of 2019, and instead push it to 2020. I just don't think I'll be able to give the focus it would take to hammer it out in the next 9+ months.


Now to celebrate the arrival of the weekend, here are some customs/gifs I whipped up over the past couple weeks or so.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure turned 30 recently. Classic.

I hope the rumored third film in the saga eventually becomes a reality.

If you go looking for Jose Canseco gifs, you'll mostly just find that clip of a ball bouncing off his head for a home run. But here's another one for @TheWaxHeaven and the other Canseco bros out there.

Yeah, I already posted this Jackie Robinson a few weeks back, but I scoured the Blogger terms of service agreement, and nowhere did it say that one is forbidden from repeating their own content. So here it is again!

Gotta love Alex Trebek. Very sad to hear about his failing health. Wishing him the best.

And another mellencholy one to end on. Tom Seaver is retiring from public life due to dementia. That news was a punch to the gut for all baseball fans. An all-time great, no doubt about it.

Plucking cards from my original collection for set needs

It's late, but I figured I'd try getting out one last post in 2018 to bring up my total for the year to an even 270. Glad to see my posting was up a bit this year from 2016 (254) and 2017 (257). It wasn't always easy, but still managed to get out several posts per week. Go me!

This is sort of a Sentimental Sundays post (ok, it's Monday, but I took the day off work, so feels like a Sunday). I went through an old shoe box of cards from back before my full-fledged return to the hobby, and picked out some old cards from sets I'm working on. Could "past me" help out with some of my in-progress setbuilds? Let's check them out (plus I can use this post as documentation of my old collection and not feel so bad for "cheating on it" by taking out cards and integrating them into my current collection).

Woo.. 3-for-3 here, needing all these '72 Topps HOFers. I'm now up to 7% complete with this recently-begun quest. Got the pair of Killers back in 2005 in one of my first forays into buying cards on eBay ($0.99 + $0.95 s&h).

Needed half of these 1975 Topps cards: Seaver (scored this one in 2011 from a guy named Will, who's an accomplished musician) and Ryan/Carlton (which was a cherished highlight of my collection from the early 90s... think it was an LCS pickup, though might have been a trade with a classmate). Already had the Carew and Rookie Infielders. 58.64% complete.

Looks like I needed all three of these 1976 Topps. That Hammer sunset card is nice one to check off! I believe that was another eBay pickup sticking my toe in the water with baseball cards between stretches of full-on collecting. Now at 27.4% complete here.

1978 Topps-- some solid names among these rookies. I always liked multi-player rookie cards and the eternal promise they seem to possess. Needed the top 2, had the bottom 2.

"Hall Rating" leaders for this group:
Lou Whitaker 145
Dale Murphy 87
Lance Parrish 80
Jack Morris 77

Card Savers and yellowed top loaders are not a part of my collection besides sentimental remnants among these "pre-return to the hobby" cards of mine. Had the '74 Gibson, but this is an upgrade. Needed the '77 Fisk... hell of a card.

1979 Topps. Needed the Alan Trammell 2nd-Year and Bob Welch rookie, but already had the Cardinals Prospects. 30.81% complete

Ending the post with some Donruss. I haven't made a wantlist for '83 Donruss yet, but I'll put this pair of rookies with the few cards I've rounded up so far. Looks like I've already got the '84 Viola.


With some luck, perhaps I'll complete one or two of these sets in 2019. Thanks to past-me for the help. As always, if you want to lend a hand, take a look at my wantlist and let me know.

Happy New Year, everybody!

You're Crazy (acoustic) to pass up a Tom Seaver 2nd-year card for $1.75

I recently won an auction for a Garry Templeton auto I had been searching for, then checked out the seller's other auctions. Ended up with some good stuff, including this slabbed 1968 Topps Tom Seaver for just $1.25 plus 50 cents additional shipping. Even in rough shape, you're crazy if you pass that up!

The back is decent too. Super cool to pick up the first solo card of an all-time great for less than the price of a Starbucks. I recently "retired" my Tom Terrific PC into the Hundred Card Club, but still had to jump on that deal.

Here's another legend I picked up cheap. This '64 Frank Robinson was mine for under $3 plus combined shipping. A little off-center, but otherwise pristine!

Happy to check another A-lister off my 1964 Topps setbuild. (Though at that price, I'd probably have picked it up ever if I weren't working on the set.)

How about another vintage first-ballot HOFer? This '57 Al Kaline wasn't quite the steal as the above 2 cards, but still a solid deal.

It's a beaut, and checks another big name off my 1957 Topps set.

Last one for today is another need for my '57 setbuild. While he doesn't have a plaque in the Hall, Don Larsen is a household name to even casual baseball fans thanks to his incredible World Series heroics in 1956.

Seeing as this is the first card to come out since his legendary performance, it's no surprise the write-up on the back focuses on the perfect game... as would pretty much every card he ever got from that point on. But I suppose you're crazy if you ignore it.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody!

Flipping Tom Seaver

If you missed it, it was my blog's 4th anniversary the other day. I discretely put out a call for contestants for a Big Fun Game down near the bottom of my Paul Molitor PC post to celebrate. Looks like we got 15 players for the game:

Billy Kingsley
Julie Owens
The Turrdog
Subjective Brian
Rod (Padrographs)
gcrl
Matt Prigge
jaybarkerfan
shoeboxlegends
Fuji
Nick
Corky
Matt Stupienski
John Miller
Bo

Give me a day or two to finalize the 15 mysterious prizes, and we'll kick off the game soon.

Speaking of being sly and strategic, I try to not buy cards purely to flip them for a profit, but once in a while I stumble on a deal too good to pass up.. often an eBay listing with a bad title or a really low Buy It Now price. A couple such cards I couldn't pass up were a pair of Tom Seaver autos. While I do have a modest Seaver PC, gotta admit I snatched these up with the intention of selling them for substantially more than I paid.

This 2003 Retired card is encased and graded a so-so PSA 9. Still, though, this was a good BIN deal and I'm confident I could sell it for twice what I paid once I get around to attempting to do so.

This buyback auto was poorly listed.. I only noticed it because I was looking at other auctions this guy had because there was something else that caught my eye. Ended up winning it embarrassingly cheap.

It's serial numbered 4/9 on the back. Again, I like the card ok, but if I can sell it for a nice chunk of change, I will. Or if anyone reading has a nice card to offer me in trade (specifically looking for some '65 Topps HOFers these days), feel free to get in touch.

I recently sold my first Mike Trout auto, just a week or so before he got hurt, so good timing on my part, I guess. After amazingly winding up with 3 other Trout autos I liked better (it was a stickergraph, bleck), I was willing to let it go, and was very happy to sell it for twice what I paid for it a year or two earlier.

But again, I try not to sell too much, because that can take some fun out of the hobby when you concern yourself with trying to make money.

Ok, this is a non sequitur, but here's a photo of a bunny that was in my front yard the other day. And I live in the city of Portland on a pretty busy street, so it's weird to see a wild rabbit, but there he or she is. Actually saw it (or a different bunny) a few days prior. Godspeed, little fella! Hope you don't end up as roadkill! I saw a wild rabbit once back when I lived in El Cajon, not too far from Granite Hills High School.

Speaking of Granite, looks like a couple grads were selected in the recent MLB draft:
8th round (234th overall): Brewers select Utah RHP Jayson Rose.
40th round (1209th overall): Blue Jays select Granite Hills HS OF Sean Ross.

Best of luck, Jayson and Sean! Assuming you sign, hope you perform well (and get cards that I can collect!)

In other Granite Hills alum baseball news, Travis Taijeron is having another fine year in AAA, leading the Las Vegas 51s in home runs. Perhaps all the injuries to the Mets will finally give him a shot in the bigs? Fingers crossed!

Anyways, I'm writing this at work late Friday evening. I'm going to a concert downtown tonight, so figured I'd stay out here rather than come home for like a half hour then commute back into downtown. Haven't been to a live (music) show in a long time, especially in a club setting. Electric Six! Love those guys. Should be a fun show. Have a good weekend, everybody!