A whale of a set (1988 San Diego State Aztecs 50th Anniversary)

My previous post was kind of a downer, with me coming to terms that a card I'd been after for years isn't actually out there.

But in happier hobby happenings for me, another card high on my most wanted list that I had never actually seen anywhere in my several years of searching was finally spotted and secured earlier this month.

I won a listing for the rare 1988 San Diego State Aztecs All-Time Greats 50th Anniversary 22-card set, with this particular set being special because a few of the cards are autographed. Says the seller: "I got this set from the dinner back then which those players were there to sign the cards." Seems to check out and the signatures give no reason to doubt their authenticity. I'd love to someday search the San Diego Union-Tribune archives or something to see if I can find more details of that dinner event.

Funny enough, this Gwynn wasn't the whale I was after, though it becomes a jewel in the crown of my biggest player collection. Mr. Padre's SDSU cards are a subcollection I love adding to, and this one is kicked up heartily by the big, blue autograph. Weirdly sentimental to me, with Tony's signature of the era reminding me of my oldest auto of his, a signed 1989 Score card I traded for from my best friend Doug back in the day. By the time pack-certified autographs were a thing, Tony's signature had devolved a bit. I think the late 80s were the glory days for Tony's john hancock.

Chris Gwynn is also present with a signed solo card plus a combo card with big bro Tony. (Too bad that one didn't get dual signed!)

The backs are solid, with the player's SDSU stats and a bio. No card numbers, tho.

Here are the rest of the signed cards. Mark Grace is cool to see in an Aztec uniform. The late Dave Smith was a prominent closer in the 80s with the Astros (and a teammate of Grace on the Cubs for a couple years in the early 90s), though he's more familiar to me from his stint as the Padres pitching coach. Mark Williamson had some success pitching for the Orioles, 1987-1994.

Bud Black, Al Newman, and Bobby Meacham are familiar names who each got 2 cards for some reason. The respective backs are identical (Again, none of the cards are numbered). I suppose college baseball didn't get much coverage back then compared to today, no doubt limiting the resources available to whoever was tasked with creating the set. All the photos are in black & white, but at least there are some neat shots mixed in there.

Graig Nettles is another appreciated PC addition-- and likely my first time seeing him in an SDSU uniform. Besides the Nettles Brothers, I'm not very familiar with the rest of these guys. I got my degree from SDSU, but don't blanket-collect cards of all ballplayers who went to the same college as me. Guys who went to the same high school as me? Now that's a different story.. and the white whale in question...

Chris Jones is a tricky guy to collect because of all the other players with the same common name. Like myself, he went from Granite Hills High to Grossmont Community College to San Diego State. Our paths differ from there with him getting drafted to play professional baseball and me getting asked to help out at the computer shop my friend was working at. Pictured here with the header/checklist, this is a card that's been among the few cards I search for way more often that is probably healthy, so it's great to finally score it, and I didn't mind at all the fact that the Gwynn Bros autos and other goodies helped elevate the asking price of the set.

I don't want to repeat myself on the blog too much, but my big Chris Jones post was back in 2015. He took center stage on the blog again in 2019 with a terrific TTM return, one of my favorite hobby experiences ever, honestly.

My PC of the second Guy From Granite to crack the bigs is nearly complete. What's left to track down? The big one missing is his entry in the 1985 Astros Postcards set (and/or its 1987 re-release). It's the only card-like-thing documenting his brief major league career (besides modern customs). If any of you readers know any bigtime Astros collectors who might have the '85 Astros postcard set (I've already asked Bru), I'd be appreciative of any help locating it-- ideally scoring one for myself, but really even just seeing a picture of Chris Jones' postcard would be nice. Nolan Ryan is the only player from the set that ever pops up anywhere.

And I've seen listed somewhere online a 1989 San Diego State All-Time Greats set that also includes a Chris Jones card, but I'm fairly confident that's just a mislabel of this 1988 set. (Why would they make a 51st Anniversary set a year later? Maybe they did a small run of reprints if anything?) Maybe something will show up in a saved eBay search notification someday, but I'm going to assume the '89 version is a "ghost whale" and won't stress it.

The only other hole in the PC on my radar is the glossy version of his 1984 Tucson Toros Cramer minor league card. I have the regular version, but apparently there's a rare a glossy parallel.. likely a team set handed out at one sparsely-attended Toros game back in '84. Again, I'll keep an eye out for that, but it doesn't interest me much apart from checking it off the list.

I'll close out with a cute pic of Ruby from Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. She was on her best behavior, relatively speaking, and had a huge amount of fun being the center of attention for a packed house. Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, too.

White Whale or just a ghost? (the case of Kirby Puckett's 2003 Topps Retired auto)

I think I've identified a "ghost whale"... you know, a white whale that might not actually exist.

Regular readers know I'm nuts for the Topps Retired product line. And Kirby Puckett is one of my favorite guys to collect, so his autograph in 2003 Topps Retired has been a holy grail of mine for a while now.

But I'm beginning to suspect that the card doesn't exist, and hopefully this post (and reader response) can help settle it.

To start at the beginning, Topps Retired Signature Edition debuted in 2003 and Kirby Puckett was listed as an autograph signer in the marketing materials and even on the bottom of the hobby box (above), though key to note is "this list is subject to change" small print attached. He was among the Group B odds group (Group A being the toughest pulls, and Group G being the most common), with a stated print run of 75 base Kirby autographs and 25 serial-numbered refractor parallels. This is common info provided on card checklist sites like TCDB, Beckett, and baseballcardpedia.. So according to that, there should be a total of (100) '03 Retired Kirby autos out there.

Sadly, Mr. Puckett died on March 6, 2006 after years of failing health, though he has other on-card certified autographs through 2004 on the market, so it's certainly possible he signed '03 Retired cards.

I've been watching Retired autographs on eBay for nearly a decade at this point. I think it's safe to say I've seen all other autograph subjects from the product for sale-- some I may not have seen the refractor yet [all numbered to 25 or less], but I've at least seen the base available once or twice over the years. In fact, there's currently a seller with "complete" autograph sets from all 3 years of Retired on eBay. His listing for 2003 Retired has an asking price of $30,000 OBO, beyond the realm of possibility for me to think about, but still a helpful resource. I poured over the photos in the listing-- the lot is highlighted by a slabbed Hank Aaron refractor (all other cards in the lot are base autos)-- but Kirby is nowhere to be seen.

The base (non-auto) set of '03 Retired is 110 cards deep. Of that checklist, only two players don't have corresponding autographs included: Dave Concepcion and Johnny Sain (with Kirby possibly being the 3rd). I gotta assume these guys were slated to have autos in there, but just didn't return their signed cards to Topps in time to be packed out (and there were no redemptions in the product, as far as I'm aware). Concepcion, like Kirby, is listed on the box bottom (in Group C), making Johnny Sain the only player in the set without his name on the original autograph list. But Concepcion, unlike Kirby, isn't included by checklist sites in the autograph listing for the product. So Topps knew it wasn't getting those Sain cards back for whatever reason, but was holding out hope for Kirby and Concepcion. And eventually Topps gave up on Dave Concepcion (ostensibly leaving him off updated marketing materials that were used by the checklist sites), but the Kirby question remains.

TCDB lists 0 collectors with either '03 Retired Kirby auto marked as being in their collection (though plenty have them on their wantlists). And none for sale (or "sold out") on COMC.

I even checked the PSA population report for 2003 Retired autos, and no one has sent in a Kirby auto for grading. You'd figure at least one of the 100 cards would have been submitted.

I've done Google searches, tried digging into historical eBay listings, and still have found no sign that a 2003 Topps Retired certified autograph of Kirby Puckett exists.

So with all that layed out, what do you think? I'm interested in hearing your take on the matter, especially if there are any Kirby Puckett supercollectors reading this who may've already gone down this rabbit hole themselves.

Does anybody have this card, or could at least share documented proof that it's out there beyond a text checklist?

Please let me know. Thanks!

Ghost Whale reeled in

"Ghost Whale" ..is this a thing?

So, "White Whale" is a rare card you dream of tracking down and/or affording someday. And "Gray Whale" is a not-so-rare card you want, but haven't found it for the right price yet.

I figure a "ghost whale" is a card you would love for your collection, but you're not sure it even really exists. (Not to be confused with a "ghost card", which is a card you could have sworn you had in your collection, but it's not there when you look for it. [I think these are also sometimes called gremlin cards.])

Many ghost whales for me are short-term stop cards. Like Willie McCovey on the A's... I sure would love to have a real (not a custom) card picturing Stretch during his brief stint in Oaktown. But as far as I'm aware, no mass-produced cards of that nature exist. Maybe someday. But for now, it's a ghost whale.

Another ghost whale I was hoping would pop up someday was a refractor reprint of Tony Gwynn's 1983 Topps rookie card. Yeah, I know Topps have driven reprints into the ground, and generally speaking I'd be in favor of Topps putting a moratorium on putting out any more reprints for a long time. But a while back, I noticed that although I've got several reprints of the '83 Topps Gwynn, none of them were refractors. And as it's human nature to want that which you do not possess, I started really wanted a refractor reprint of it. Hey, it's the most iconic card of my favorite player.. I was curious to see that classic butt-shot with some rainbow shine on it. Looking around on eBay and COMC, I couldn't find one.**

Then a few days ago, Topps Cards That Never Were posted about a factory set of 2019 Topps that included some Target exclusive bonus refractor reprints, and one of them was Tony. I asked Jeremy if it was available for trade, and a week or so later it showed up in my mailbox. Looks great!

A card so nice, let's look at it twice!

That's a ghost whale checked off!

**In working on this post, I found one sold-out on COMC that might also fit the bill.. 2014 Topps Chrome - All-time Rookie Reprints ..but that seems to be pretty rare (can't find one currently for sale) and I'm not positive it's a refractor.. might just be a regular chrome reprint.

A Brian Giles card was along for the ride in the PWE as well. Sweet!

Big thanks, Jeremy! I've sent you back a couple cards I hope you like.

My Most Wanted (2004 Topps Retired refractors)

I don't own the cards in this post, but I would like to.

White Whale watching. Specifically with 2004 Topps Retired, I wanted to see how many of the remaining (sweet) 16 refractor autos that I need could be found online (just in digital image form, not necessarily for sale). It's also an exercise to prove to myself that they exist. I've been collecting these cards since returning to the hobby circa 2012, and some of them I've never even seen in all this time. There should be 25 copies of each refractor out there.

Here's my list of needs:

Hank Aaron
Ernie Banks
Stan Musial
Duke Snider
Mike Schmidt
Paul Molitor
Bucky Dent
César Gerónimo
Orel Hershiser
Dave Parker
Alan Trammell
Darren Daulton
Wally Joyner
Jimmy Key
Jack McDowell
Graig Nettles

I found pictures of 9 of them:

That leaves 7 cards with no photographic evidence, though I was able to find old "sold" listings from back when the product was new:

Paul Molitor - one at $55 in 2004, and another in 2005 for $82.
Bucky Dent - one in 2004 (the Christmas Card, no less!) for $85.
Cesar Geronimo - $58 in 2005.
Orel Hershiser - two in 2004 around $50+.
Dave Parker - one in 2005 for $90.
Wally Joyner - one in 2006 for $52.
Jack McDowell - one in 2005 for $90.

So this research was successful in reasonably proving to me that all 16 cards I need exist. (Hey, Topps has been known to list cards on checklists that they don't actually put out-- or redemptions that never get made-- so it's a real concern when hunting down whales you've never actually seen.)

If anyone has any of these sixteen 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition refractor autographs available, please let me know! Would love to try working out a trade or sale. Otherwise, I'll just keep on keeping an eye out on eBay.

dual cardboard blast (trade roundup)

Just a couple trade packages arriving within the past week or so, but both were nice fat bubble mailers from my cardsphere hommies the Junior Junkie and SpastikMooss.

First up is Mr. Mooss. He had his eye on one of my extra Wade Boggs Always Sunny autographed customs, and was cool enough to do some COMC shopping on my behalf in exchange, scoring me a nice selection of cards off my wantlist.

Never get tired of these! Thanks to this lovely lot of 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors, I've cracked triple digits in my attempt to complete that parallel set. I'm now at 103/487 complete (21%).

And my goal of spelling out Baseball Card Breakdown in various letter cards has made great strides lately. With these 2 additions, I'm happy to say I'm over hump now, with 11 cards down, 10 left to go. I can currently spell BASE A CARD EA. Not familiar with Greg Halman, but Yonder Alonso was a Padre for a while, so bonus points there.

Whale miniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!! With these 5 needs, I've completed the 2012 Allen & Ginter "Giants of the Deep" insert set. I'm not a big Ginter collector, but I like whales a lot and was drawn to these minis. Feels great to finish off that goal.

Here's some fun stuff, including 3 Glow Star stickers, getting me closer in completing that subset from 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack. The coleslaw boots seems to be from a Ren & Stimpy game.

Hmm, I should probably have included the stickers in the previous picture. Some dudes I collect in there. As for the top row, vintage PC needs of Billy Williams and Reggie Jackson. Poor Billy came to Oakland just a teeny bit late to get in on their championship run. While I like to think of my Piazza PC as "complete" I do still like to add Padres cards of his I'm missing and the occasional crazy 90s insert.

Sealed junk wax! Always fun to rip, even if there's probably nothing in there I really need for my collection. Fingers crossed the gum is still bright pink so I can chomp down on that shit. Not even joking!

Great stuff.. big thanks, Mooss!

 -  - - - ---o

Next up to the plate is new dad The Junior Junkie (congrats on the bundle of joy!). I was lucky enough to be a part of his recent epic mailing, even though he had very recently bought a couple custom sets of mine (thanks again!), so he definitely didn't owe me anything and was just getting a jump on our next trade, knowing he'd be a little preoccupied for the foreseeable future. So no rush, but I'll have to hit him back one of these days.

That's a big Gwynn lot! While I've already got most of the overproduction era cards, there are definitely some PC additions among these guys.

And here's a nice Greg Maddux lot to add to my Mad Dog collection.

David Ortiz represented.

A bunch of Giancarlo cards, highlighted by a dufex Pinnacle insert.

Some Padres hits and inserts. I don't know if Mike Thompson or Jon Knott ever showed much in the way of signs of greatness, but cool to get their autographs nonetheless. And neat A-Gon relic and Spangenberg Future Star.

And this picture wraps it up for us. Oops, I should have included that Maddux with the others, but oh well. I believe it's #'d /500 or something. The San Diego card in the lower left is Austin Hedges (I should have included it with the other misc Padres). Another unopened pack! I watched a little of Yo! MTV Raps back in the day. Probably even ripped a couple of these at the time. I should do a separate post where I rip these junk era packs I've gotten.
And the kicker! A custom blogger card of TJ himself, autographed and personalized to me on the back. Very cool! Thanks, man!

The rest of my Black Friday COMC haul

Here's the second of two posts showing off cards from my Black Friday COMC order (Part 1 here).

Let's start with some awesome additions to my Jerry Coleman PC.

1951 Berk Ross Hit Parade of Champions #1-6 

I'm not familiar with this set, but seems like neat old vintage and wasn't too pricey.

1982 ASA The Johnny Mize Story Green #8

Jerry looks kinda weird or aggravated on most of his baseball cards, so it's nice to have at least one "happy card" of the guy, here apparently in a rousing rendition of Queen's "We Are The Champions".

1992 The Wiz/American Express New York Yankees All-Stars

"The Wiz"? Like from that Seinfeld episode? Cool.

My second auto of Jerry (though it uses the same photo as my first). Beautiful. Only set me back $5.25.

Now to some other guys.

1965 Topps Embossed Richie Allen

Another piece for my Dick Allen PC. Everybody hates these things. Weird looking and condition sensitive. At least they're cheap.

So... I wanted to pick up a couple cards to add to my glow-in-the-dark collection (plus Pads in the Hall). Well, when I got them in the dark...

... only the Piazza glew. LAME! The Robbie was listed on COMC as being a glowing parallel but obviously is NOT. It was less than a buck, so I won't make a stink about it, but I'm not happy about it. Oh well, he's a guy I collect, at least.

Whales! I've now got over half of this 2012 A&G Giants of the Deep mini insert set. I was a little disappointed that the backs are all just the checklist (HATE insert sets where every card is a checklist) instead of a little write-up about each whale. I'd still like to finish off this set, though, so please let me know if you've got any for trade.

Quisenberry rookie. One of the funniest cards ever, with Bill and Dan both giving a justifiably quizzical look to Renie, who obviously isn't real. He's a cartoon character who ties ladies to railroad tracks. How he wound up on a baseball card, I'll never know.

I've been wanting this Refridgerator Perry "SP" for a full calendar year, thanks to this post at The Chronicles of Fuji. As with most old-school footballers I like, my affection for them is not chiefly based on their success on the gridiron. When I was a kid, I was big into G.I. Joe, and I had Fridge's special edition mail-order G.I. Joe figure. I still don't feel like he was a real person.

Let's close it out with Rod Beck (Geez, 3 guys in a row who passed away too soon. I didn't plan this post that way. Sorry to be a downer.) I love adding a card here n' there to my Rod Beck PC, and this minor league issue is a nice one.

So that's my Black Friday 2014 haul. (There was actually one more card, but it will have to wait for a sexier day.)