Musically shaped cards

Music-themed die-cut cards! I don't try to collect them all, rather it's one of those type collections where I just try to get one representative from each set. 

There's the group pic of what I've currently got. Now let's do a chronological rundown.

1996 Leaf - Greatest Hits

Maybe there are obscure pre-war cards shaped like a flugelhorn or whatever, but best I can tell, Leaf (part of Donruss at the time) gave the world its first music-themed die-cut trading cards in May of 1996 with the release of their flagship set that included acetate inserts shaped to look like a piece of a compact disc. You'd expect an assortment of all-stars on the checklist, but nope, only Frank Thomas! There are a total of 8 "CD" cards featuring a different photo of the Big Hurt-- 4 available in hobby packs, 3 in retail, and 1 wrapper redemption-- and each is #/5000 on the back. 

(Tangent on cards that are also playable discs) 

Just the next year, Donruss took the concept further with 1997 Donruss VxP 1.0, a set that included 1-per-pack (6 different) rectangular CD-roms you could play on a computer disc drive. The discs featured a minute-long highlight reel of the player, a little trivia game, and if you got all 6 discs you could unlock a special screensaver thingy. I featured the Frank Thomas video in a 2017 post. As far as I can tell, the product was a flop for Donruss, and VxP never got a "2.0" release.

Upper Deck, however, ran with the concept of cards that doubled as playable discs. The first PowerDeck cards in 1997 were billed as "the revolutionary trading card for your audio CD player". UD only released 4 such special cards in that first wave and spread them out by sport: Griffey in baseball, Jordan in basketball, Aikman in football, and Rusty Wallace in racing. They aren't really shaped like CDs, though, rather they are card-shaped but with a hole in the middle that you have to punch out if you want to play the thing (featuring a brief audio interview). Later more common versions of PowerDeck cards were little CD-roms that you could play on a computer similar to the VxP card-discs. I think the final PowerDeck release was in 2000, which seems to be the last gasp of the "multimedia trading card" concept. (Upper Deck later messed around with thick cards that had a device embedded in them so you could watch a little video of the player on the card itself, but those were very limited [expensive to make] and didn't really catch on [batteries died quickly].)

All these actual discs aren't really in the scope of my music die-cuts collecting project, but I figured they were worth a mention.

 

1996 Leaf Studio - Hit Parade

August 1996, just a few months after the Frank Thomas "CD chunks", Leaf (again under Donruss at the time) was back with more musical die-cutting to unleash on the hobby. There are 10 of these Hit Parade inserts-- this time Frank is joined by 9 other players-- with the cards made to look like a vinyl record partially out of its sleeve, each #/5000 on the back. Fortunately I had a dupe in my Gwynn PC to dispatch to this group. The motif is partially continued on the back, with "Side Two" of the record shown; a nice touch. Apparently promo cards exist for all 10 of these, in case you really want to be a completist.

 

2001 Fleer Ultra - The Greatest Hits Of

Five years later, Fleer unapologetically made a very similar insert to the die-cuts from '96 Studio, but modernized the concept to a compact disc partially out of its case. There are 10 of these Greatest Hits Of inserts in 2001 Ultra, with each also having a #/10 Platinum Medallion parallel to chase. Fleer upped the theme by including song titles, but they didn't get too clever about it. "Takin' Care Of Business" is a BTO song everybody knows and fits fine for Ripken, but "Iron Man" would've been cooler. I don't think "Rip's Rhapsody" is referencing a real song but rather just a made-up track for Cal. (Is he a Queen fan? Gershwin, perhaps?)

2013 Panini The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary - Gold Albums

Panini's big Beach Boys set from 2013 includes die-cut Gold Albums (22 cards, seeded 1:24 packs), as well as similarly shaped On The Record inserts (30 cards, seeded 1:12). I had this one Surfin' USA dupe available-- I'm technically trying to build the set on TCDb, but I never find anyone to trade non-sport stuff there-- so it gets the call to represent the set. Both inserts also have two parallels, Artist's Proof and gold-foil-surfer-silhouette-in-the-corner, like pretty much every card in that product does.

Turns out Kiss put out Gold Album die-cut insert cards quite similar to this in 2001, designed like a gold record poking up out of the sleeve, though I only found out about them while researching this post. I'm currently only seeing them for like $20 a pop... haven't bitten. A music-themed die-cut for a band isn't as quirky as sports guys shoehorned into a musical theme, but I'll still try to score one of those Kiss die-cuts if one pops up cheap.

2022-23 Upper Deck Parkhurst Champions - Jukebox Heroes 

I think Chris the Collector was the one to give me a heads-up about these jukebox shaped hockey cards from 2022-23 Parkhurst Champions. I eventually landed the Alex Ovechkin, one of the few familiar names to me on the 20-card checklist. There are also tougher gold parallels, and some autographed versions. Even the printing plates got packed out, though those aren't die-cut.

2026 Bowman - Power Chords

And finally, here's the latest entry: Topps gets in on the music-shaped fun with die-cut cards in 2026 Bowman. These Power Chords refractor inserts are cool looking but common enough to where even a big name like Aaron Judge didn't set me back much. But of course it's 2026 and this is Fanatics we're talking about, so there are several parallels and autographs out there if you have the urge to drop more cash on guitar-shaped cards.

That's a wrap. Do you know of any other music-themed die-cut trading cards that I haven't mentioned here? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody.

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #4: Wayne Gretzky

Whoopsie-doodle, the last card I did in this series was #5 (Canseco and Madonna, from back in February.. those innocent, carefree days of yore). Nobody noticed, so I think I got away with it. But today we backtrack to #4, which is a very good hockey playing man.

What do you think of this headshot likeness? I mean, you can tell who it's supposed to be, so I'd say it's good by those standards. I'm seeing a little Dolph Lundgren in there too. As for the action shot, I probably wouldn't have guessed that was Gretzk' unless maybe I noticed the uniform and guessed from there. Squint your eyes and it might resemble a Penguin.. like Sidney Crosby or something? Oh whom I kidding, I am a poser (poseur) hockey fan. I don't know a puck from my pecker!

Yet...

I went out and bought a Gordie Howe autograph card. Check this mother out! Big, horizontal on-card signature! Limited edition! Hawaii! (Oh man, I'm glad we squeezed in that Hawaiian vacation right before things started going sideways. We're still coasting off that high to get us through these days.) I love this card! I just wanted a Gordie Howe autograph so bad! He was "Woodrow" on that one episode of The Simpsons where Bart catfishes Ms. Krabappel!

Hey.. Speaking of Edna!..

I also recently scored this card! Full disclosure, it is not in-hand yet, but should be arriving very soon. I really hope the auto looks better in person and it's just a weird glare shown in the photo.
Love and miss the late Marcia Wallace.. so great!

Anyways, back to hockey...

I just dig hockey superstars and like to score good hockey cards for my collection once in a while. I assume it might be something like how maybe a guy who doesn't follow baseball much would still get a thrill out of owning an autograph from Hank Aaron or Willie Mays, ya know?

My hockey collection has no right to be this good! Yet here we are!

I'll probably target a Jagr next, but no rush.

As with all these Cardboard Dreamers, it's the back doodle that always seems to steal the show with its endearing bizarreness that looks like it was drawn by a 6th grader on their binder divider tab page. The fun facts they share on the back are often quite interesting too!

• A Google search for "most money ever paid for a baseball card" says it's still a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, but now the record is $3.12 million. Damn inflation. lol

I don't think it's Wayne's Wagner that scored that top sale, though, was it?.. I remember hearing there was some controversy about his being trimmed before he bought it. But pretty sure he sold it years back regardless.

• The Toronto Argonauts of the CFL are still around.. the franchise going on.. [checks notes] 146 years?‽‽! Holy crap! The CFL is seriously that old? That must be hooligans screwing around on Wikipedia with April Fools jokes that haven't been corrected yet because there's no way Canadians were playing football back when Lincoln was freeing the slaves!

Oh man, speaking of deceased actors I love a bunch and miss greatly.. John Candy! Wow, I hadn't heard about him co-owning a sports team with Gretzky and another guy. Spaceballs, Stripes, Plains Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck. SCTV. So much good stuff!

Anyways, the 3 guys owned the team from February 25, 1991 – May 5, 1994. The split was Bruce McNall (60%), John Candy (20%), and Wayne Gretzky (20%).

Oh man, remember Rocket Ismail? They signed him for a huge contract-- we're talking T206 Wagner territory!-- and then the team won it all in 1991. That must've been a thrill for Bruce, Wayne, and my man John Candy.

I honestly have no idea what an Argonaut is. Is it like an arrogant astronaut?!

Here is a cool song by Frank Black called "At the End of the World" which might seem like it's fitting for these times, but is actually written about John Candy.


Cool song, right? It was a b-side to the "Headache" single.

Oh man, I've really been neglecting my MusiCards blog! I haven't posted there since before the dark times. Gotta start cranking out posts there again soon.

Candy sadly passed away in 1994, shortly after he sold his stake in the team.

• The last bullet-point on the card talks about Gretzky's records total. Wiki says, At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.

Yep, he was pretty good!

But I think I've achieved a sports accomplishment that not even The Great One could dream of...

The other day I was playing Wii Sports Resort - Island Flyover subgame.. an old favorite game of mine when I just want to chill out and fly around like I'm Roy Halladay (RIP, the psycho son-of-a-gun). It's really fun. Sometimes I like to challenge myself to pull off trick moves just for fun (Not like you score points for it or nothin'), and the latest thing I managed to pull off was landing my plane in a swimming pool. It's tough because it's a small pool and you need to time your landing just right or you'll crash. But yeah, after a few attempts, I managed to just barely splashdown safely with a cut engine for a minute or two just hanging out with the kids at the pool. Pretty cool, right?! LOL

Have a great weekend, everybody! To help raise some good vibes, check out the first completed page of what I hope will one day be a decent-sized Thumbs-Up Binder! Yeah, a couple photos are reused, so it's not perfect-- but still! Nine different cards with a thumbs-up! 👍

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #5: Madonna and Jose Canseco

This is a real card that was on the market in 1991. Crazy! Not a mainstream release, but still!

Those sketches are pretty terrible/awesome!

I already kinda talked about this card last year. But..

Speaking of sketches, I found out there's a FB group specifically for MST3K trading cards and I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe I'll be able to trade for the remaining glow-in-the-dark inserts I need.

Check out this dual auto I got! This is the MST3K equivalent of a dual auto of Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig.

And this is the Babe Ruth!

  (Mike Nelson is Hank Aaron in this scenario, but he didn't sign for this product because he's kinda uncool when it comes to stuff like that, sadly.)

I made an attempt at improving on the 2020 Topps design (right). Not perfect (hint of '94 Topps?) but I prefer it my way.

Check out under Trout in the original (left) version.. is that..? could it be..?

 Amy Poehler!

Ha, maybe?

I got that (not trimmed) Mike Schmidt auto back thanks to the seller being cool!

Wii Sports Resort - Island Flyover is one of my favorite video games. Especially when you're eating frozen grapes, if you know what I mean! Anybody else like it?

I only have one spot left to find after stumbling upon one the other day, but honestly I kinda hope I never find the last one because then the mystery will be gone and playing the game might lose some of the magic.

Some of my toys.

I hear ya, bud! #thankstopps

Bunny alert! Also, we've had a squirrel trying to get into our attic. I tried dousing the area in a jalapeno-vinegar soup which will hopefully get him to scram.

I got a Tom(my) Lasorda autograph! Not a refractor, but still cool.

Madonna and Jose? No! It's us from the big work party last month. It was a masquerade theme. I got a lot of different fake mustaches and swapped them out thru the night.

I'm "going thru some shit" and probably won't be posting much for the next few weeks. But don't worry, it's not relationship shit or health shit or money shit (a.k.a. the heavy shit), but shit none the less.

Have a great holiday weekend, everybody!

Extending my card collection into tarot cards

In a first for the blog, I'm writing while holed up at work due to a bomb threat in the building. If I get blown up, I want you all to know I really appreciate your readership over these past few years. Hit up my wife if you want to make an offer on my card collection. Don't lowball her or I'll haunt you good! (Nah, don't worry, it's just a crazy person disrupting my commute home so I'm stuck in the office for another hour or two till police get everything under control.)

But onto what I was gonna blog about... Let me first say that I'm not at all into astrology, fortunetelling, or any supernatural stuff along those lines. I think I'd fall under the umbrella of "skeptic" for all mystical hoobajoob. (--though I admit to keeping my distance from the number 13 when convenient, and I've been known to literally knock wood from time to time.)

But from a collector standpoint, I dig dusty old items associated with that kinda stuff.. exotic and weird brikabrak. Especially in regards to music, like the back cover of Jane's Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual. And I've mentioned the band Rilo Kiley here a few times over the years and how they're a favorite of mine and how I met my wife through our mutual love of the band. Well, singer Jenny Lewis recently put out some tarot cards to help promote her new album, On The Line. (Just to prove how not into this scene I am, my wife had to correct me that the ending T in tarot is silent. It's "TA-row") 

You can get them from her website. It's like $10 (closer to $15 after shipping). Not super cheap, but I thought it was worth it to get some official Jenny Lewis cards into my collection. I know Gypsy Queen has put out some cool faux tarot inserts the past couple years, but other than that I didn't really own any of that type of stuff.

The collector in me is wary of opening up the shrinkwrap. But thanks to an online search, here's what they look like...

These are all based on Jenny Lewis songs (and one from her time in Rilo Kiley, "Silver Lining"). Pretty cool.

Some of these images may have previously surfaced on her Instagram or Spotify accounts. The decks were originally offered thru Spotify a few months ago and sold out very quickly (to my disappointment)-- but thankfully they eventually were back in stock on her website and I was able to grab one.

It's a good album. Check it out if that's your thing.

So there you have it, tarot cards added to my card collection. Howbout you? Any tarot cards or things of that nature mixed in with your trading cards?

Sort of adding a Harry Shearer auto to my Simpsons collection

I bought a lot of CDs back in the 90s and built up a big music collection. But as the millenium dawned, I was picking up less and less CDs, gravitating more towards mp3s, and later towards streaming. I've probably only bought 3 or 4 CDs in the past decade.

--Or at least up until just recently when I picked up a few autographs from Newbury Comics, who run a lot of promos direct with the artists-- basically, when you buy a CD, you get a bonus signed item from the band-- so I consider these essentially "certified autographs" since they're from a known legit source, not picked up on the secondary market. The prices on these offers are decent-- basically what I remember paying for a new CD back in the day, mostly around $15-- so I picked up a few (enough to qualify for free shipping). Here's the first one I wanted to show off...

Derek Smalls is a fictional character who plays bass for the fictional band Spinal Tap. While I think This is Spinal Tap is a classic film, what really made me jump at this was the fact that Derek Smalls is Harry Shearer, and I thought it'd be cool to add to my very small collection of The Simpsons related autographs. Harry of course is the voice of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny, Otto, Rainier Wolfcastle, Scratchy, Kang, the Vin Scully-inspired baseball broadcaster, and more.

As you can see, it's signed in character (as Derek Smalls), but it's still an authentic autograph from Harry Shearer-- close enough for me! This autographed sheet came with a sealed CD of Derek Smalls' new solo album, Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)...

I gave it a listen and it's pretty good. If you like the music of Spinal Tap, well obviously this is in that same vane.. hard rock songs with cheeky lyrics.

Again, not exactly Simpsons, but I'll happily take it and shoehorn it into that part of my collection.

Cards From The Marcus; Rocket From The Crypt

Back in the day (2013), Marcus from all the way to the backstop was the first blogger I ever traded with. He doesn't blog as often these days, but he's still active on Twitter. A little while back he tweeted out some highlights from some 2017 Heritage High Number he had ripped, and I inquired about the availability of a couple cards. He gave me the greenlight, and I sent him a modest PWE with a couple special customs as the focal point. A couple days ago he hit me back, with not just those couple cards I asked about, but a bunch more great cards too.

Wowie wow wow-wow! I confess to being very susceptible to "rookie mania" going back to my childhood days of chasing Kevin Maas and Keith Mitchell cards in the early 90s. And even now as a grow-ass man, I will unapologetically ask for your available Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger cards, despite the Yankees and Dodgers being among my least-favorite teams. Not only did Marcus send me my first via-trade Judge card, but he sent me three of them! If anybody needs the extra Archive base card in trade, let me know. And I believe this is my first #'d Bellinger card (/999), which is pretty cool. These guys are the presumptive ROY winners, with really the only question being if they'll be unanimous winners or not. The BBWAA Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards will be announced Monday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. ET.

The 2 cards I asked Marcus about were the Bellinger and this Trea Turner, everything else was an awesome surprise.

Looks like Marcus ripped a couple blasters of 2017 Archives. Good stuff.

I recently counted up my Bryce Harper cards and it was comfortably over 100, though I will definitely drag my feet in moving him from my "high priority" wantlist into the "Hundred Card Club" section. Dude is only 25 years, 25 days old. Younger than Aaron Judge! If he stays health and plays till he's 40.. wow, he'll have some incredible career stats.

Some Bowmans and Strasburgs.

And the cards keep coming. Even a Star Wars card. I don't know who Rose is, but I'll take it!

Big thanks, Marcus! That really was an incredible return package for my dinky PWE. I owe ya one.

Ok, I know "Rocktober" is over, but my injured finger hindered me from getting to a few things near the end of the month that I wanted to, so you may see a couple posts creeping out here in November. And heck, it's my blog, so I can sneak in some music content once in a while, right?

Marcus and I are connected not just for our devotion to the San Diego Padres, but we also share a love for San Diego's favorite rock band Rocket From The Crypt. I figured I'd show off some of my RFTC stuff piggybacking with the cards Marcus sent.

I got this SLAMM magazine signed by frontman John "Speedo" Reis at an in-store appearance at the record store Off The Record in San Diego on 6/2/98. My buddy Doug and I arrived late and missed the first half of the live performance, but got to briefly meet him afterwards and get his autograph. At the time we thought it was funny that he signed on his forehead, though in hindsight, it's a great place to sign to make it visible.

Here's a promo mini poster for their excellent 1996 album Scream, Dracula, Scream.

Here are a couple setlists and a pick. The one on the left is from 12/8/99 and the one on the right is from 11/23/99, both at the Casbah in San Diego. I've been lucky enough to see them live a dozen times, which as far as I can figure is the most times I've ever seen one band. They always put on a great show.

Here're my RFTC CDs. I jettisoned my least-favorite album (1998's RFTC) in a recent CDs+cards deal as I work on majorly slimming down my CD collection, but I might have to hang onto most of these. Or maybe I'll send them to Marcus so he can have extra copies to keep in his car. Group Sounds is the import version with 3 bonus tracks.

And here's a CD/DVD release of their final show on Halloween 2005 (until they eventually reunited several years later, and are still somewhat active with an occasional little tour). I was front-row center for this show, even sang along in one song when Speedo stuck the mic in my face. It was actually a tough experience for me because in the middle of the show I cut my hand open on some broken glass from the opening band. Lost a lot of blood! But yeah, it was a memorable night.

Anyways, there's some of my cool Rocket From The Crypt stuff. Have a great weekend, everybody.