Christmas in May: McGriff takes a bite out of Christmas

[I collect "Christmas Cards" {any card serial numbered 12/25}. On the 25th of each month, I like to pull out something from this mini-collection to feature on the blog.]

Gotta love Fred McGriff. Nice to see Topps showing him love in recent years, including him in sets like Archives, Tribute, and Five Star. His certified autos were once few and far between, but are now plentiful.

I did a little write-up on Crime Dog last year in a One True Rookie feature, so I'll just link to that rather than cover his fine career again here.

This is a nice-looking card, signed in silver. As noted recently at the Lost Collector, the silver pens Topps has been using lately might be a bit too fat, often jumbling up the signature into an inkflow mess. While a finer point may have improved the card, I'm still pretty happy with it. This is the third Five Star Silver Signatures auto I've picked up, joining Christmas Cards I've posted already of Paul Molitor and Tim Raines.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

Here are cards I bought at the card show today

My third card show (as an adult) is in the books. The first show, I mostly stuck to the Vintage Guy's boxes. The second show, I was all about the old biker/hippy guy with a big variety of $1 cards. At this, the third show, I split my time between both those guys.

The vintage guy's $1 boxes were now 6-for-$5. So I set out to stack up a half-dozen old cards.

1951 Bowmans for a buck or less are pretty hard to pass up, regardless of condition or the fact their names don't especially ring any bells for me.

Joe Dobson was pretty cool, with a fun fact being he was Ted Williams' personal batting practice pitcher on the Bosox the year he hit .406. Roy Smalley is apparently the most recent player to commit 50+ errors in a season. Buddy Rosar was one of the AL's top catchers of the 40s, making the All-Star team 5 times.

And here's the other 3 cards. Not too familiar with Dick Stuart, but Kaline and Killebrew on a vintage card gets my attention (scanner cut off the bottom a little). Vintage Don Zimmer cards are always fun. And Roy Face and Hoyt Wilhelm together is pretty cool, too.

The other guy didn't have the 7-for-$5 special he had last time on his dollar boxes, which was kind of a bummer. I ended up picking up 12 from the dollar bins and 4 from the quarter bins and got them for $12 total, which isn't too bad.

Here are a couple pre-RC "cards that never were" cards from the old iteration of Archives. I've seen them online and thought they were neat. The Clemente has a nasty crease I didn't notice at the time, but oh well.

Here's another Clemente. And a Yaz.

I seem to pick up a Kellogg's card at every show. Nothing wrong with that.

I've always loved the look of these 91 Leaf gold rookies. 

A minor league Pedro is pretty cool.

Here's a photo of a car driving through a baseball card.. Something you don't see everyday!

Here's one of the 25 cent cards. I've got a couple 89 Topps Big Unit rookies, but don't recall seeing this Topps Traded card before.

More quarter cards. These are nice additions to my glow-in-the-dark card collection. The dealer also had a few of the non-glowing variations, but the glowing ones are slightly yellow on the "stitching" on the sides. Hard to tell the difference unless you see them in person. Here they are somewhat in action:

That's about it, plus 3 or 4 more cards I picked up to send off to people.

So not "one for the record books" or anything, but a good use of an hour+ and $17-- or, the ever-relevant "less than a blaster"!

Baseball Card Dance Party!!!!!!

It's FRYYdaeeeeee! 3-day weekend, to boot!

Time to dance.
I think I might go ahead and call this the final Baseball Card Dance Party.. at least for a while (These next few weeks will be big for me.. [possibly/probably?] leaving my job.. Hawaiian vacation.. getting married.. throwing a big wedding reception party back home after we get back. So making silly looking gifs of baseball cards from my for-trade box will be on the backburner). So let's make this one to remember!

Word t' ya moms!
















 Dat shit is Hyped up!

Bump it, stump it, trip on this!









Card Show Weekend for me! I'll be looking to drop 20-ish bucks on sweet additions to my collection, plus keeping an eye out for stuff for trading buddies.

Have a great weekend, guys. Keep on dancing.

Parallel Universe: 2014 Topps Archives turns back the crotch

I generally like Topps Archives. It's a very divisive product, I know. But back in 2012 when I was just giving a curious look at what the hobby had been up to for the past couple decades, it was 2012 Archives that made me say, "Hmm, it'd be fun to rip a few packs of that!" Drawing me in with sentimental, familiar designs, and a mix of old-timers I knew and new guys I mostly didn't, next thing I knew I had dropped probably about a hundred bucks on blasters chasing a hit, any hit (never did pull an auto or anything really cool like that, sadly). And that was basically how I stumbled back into collecting baseball cards. Here we are a couple years later and I've pretty much gone full-bore and I'm even blogging about it a few times per week.

So call me a softy/sucker for Archives, but I pre-ordered a hobby box of the 2014 product the other day and eagerly expect it at the end of the month. With 2 guaranteed autos per box, looks like I'll finally get the longed-for hit that several blasters of 2012 and 2013 Archives couldn't deliver. Sure, I'll just pull the likes of Wally Backman and Adam Eaton, but I'll take them, even though I'll have overpaid a bunch. ($90 for the hobby box.. ugh.. no more 2014 product for me. I'm done.)

Stay tuned for a future post where I bust the box (At least I had the self-restraint not to spend a grand to crack a case.. believe me, I wanted to!)

But for now, let's enter the world of imagination and take a look at some fun/fake highlights that 2014 Topps Archives features! This is a silly recurring feature called Parallel Universe.

"Game-used" Charlie Sheen condom relic

This year Archives celebrates the 25th anniversary of the film Major League with special inserts. The most sought-after will surely be this auto/relic featuring a piece of a condom from a lovely night Charlie had with an escort whilst filming the motion picture.

1980 Topps "hot packs"

They sure do fuckin' love 1980 Topps. It was just back in 2012 Archives when 1980 Topps was a featured design. And now this year, 1980 Topps is again one of the four featured designs in the base set. And they didn't just stop there! Certain "1980 hot cases" will be nothing but a case of 1980 Topps wax packs that the company had sitting unsold in a warehouse upstate. Good luck pulling a Gem-Mint 10 Rickey rookie! (Actually, this would be pretty cool. Who would be upset finding out the case of 2014 Archives they bought was actually 1980 Topps? But 1989 Topps on the other hand, you've got a lawsuit on your hands.)

Uglifractor, /10

In an effort to create "the ugliest card design of all time" Topps has taken 1986 Topps and made a purple border version. The result is, in a phrase, A delightfully nauseating affront to all of God's creation. (This is not a fake card, this is apparently real!)

That's it for this time. (Sorry if this episode was a bit phoned-in. And I hope the condom thing wasn't offensive to anybody.. forgive my occasional lapse in good taste.) We'll catch ya next time.. here in.. the parallel universe!!!

Marquis Mania is in Full Swing, As foretold in the Prophesy

A few weeks ago I announced my intention of collecting a large number of Marquis Grissom 1990 Upper Deck #9 for reasons that could only be described as an innate calling deep inside of my very essence. I've since been able to fine-tune the specifics of this goal thanks to stumbling upon an ancient, mystical prophesy.

The answer was right in front of my face the whole time. As foretold by the elders in the prophesy long ago.

1990 Upper Deck #9

Number 9.. number 9.. number 9..

YES! Of course! The jersey number.. the number on the bat.. the card number.. it all fulfills the prophesy. 9-9-9.

That equals 111 pages of 9 cards each. Add to that my "original" copy of the card that I've had since I was a kid and you've got the ultimate goal of 1,000 cards. A "G" of Grissoms, if you will.

Behold, the sacred binder; He wrapped of whimsical enchantment:

So, here we go. I've got 111 pages to be filled, plus the one true card secured in the outside spine.

Once the pages have all been filled, the enchanted spell shall be unleashed! Leafing through the contents of the binder will grant immeasurable power and eternal peace forever to thou that doth gaze upon thine splendor.

Putting in all the cards I've gathered so far was pretty soothing. After this initial load, we come to 16 full pages (single-sided), plus 6 cards.. which gives us a nice solid 150. Add 1 for the original card outside the binder and that's 151 cards.

Not bad!

Do you have any spare copies of this card to contribute to the cause? If so, please reach out to me, post hast! I must secure 1000 copies of this card to achieve enlightenment. The sanctity of the world may depend upon it!

p.s. Parts of this post were drafted after a couple drinks. Can you spot which parts? Hint: It's the parts about prophesies and enchantment!

2004 Retired auto update / State of the Hobby rambling

Down to single-digits with my 2004 Topps Retired auto needs!

I mentioned last week that I finished off the base set, but I still have some big autos left to throw large sums of money away on hunt down.

Since my last post on the subject, I've "upgraded" 5 autos to lovely refractors:

There are only 25 copies of each of these refractors in existence. As pointed out recently at the Underdog Card Collector, today's high-end sets will have parallels numbered to 25, and then have nearly identical "different" parallels numbered to 10 or something, then another nearly identical parallel numbered to a bigger number such as 999, rendering the serial numbering on all the cards essentially meaningless. But back in 2004, at least with this set, when Topps said there were 25 copies of a card made, they meant it.

I'm especially happy with the Earl Weaver because it's the Christmas Card (#12/25!) and was won relatively cheaply.

And though I probably should stay away from non-refractors since deciding I'd ultimately like to collect a set of all 76 auto refractors (and once I upgrade to the refractor, I no longer need the base auto in my collection), it's still hard for me to stay away from a card I need when the price isn't too ridiculous.

Here are 2 I've checked off the list since last time:

Love that Brooks. The Hall of Famer just celebrated his 77th birthday recently.

My latest addition, the Canseco card had been elusive. In recent weeks, I think there was a graded refractor in a lot that went for well over a hundred. There were a couple buy-it-now's for around $30-35 that I missed out on, only to discover browsing completed auctions after the fact. There's one currently up for $199 or best offer that's been there a while now.. I made him an offer of $50 and he turned it down. I'm glad he did, because a couple weeks or so later I lucked out on this one with a low opening bid and won it for under $30, perhaps aided by eBay screwing up the thumbnail photo in the listing.

After reading this post, I kinda assume all Canseco autos out there are counterfeit, but here's hoping this one's legit.

As an aside, I'd like to say I'm very envious of 6,000,000 Cards and Counting's ability to crank out gorgeous hard-copy customs-- even refractors and acetates!-- and if I had the skills/equipment, I would undoubtedly be making myself a ton as well. But it kinda worries me when a regular guy can print out a professional grade card that could pass for the real thing. In the wrong hands, that could really F-up the hobby. Who's to say that hot superfractor you see on eBay isn't just a reproduction some guy spent a few days getting to look just right? Even holograms that once "guaranteed" Upper Deck cards were authentic, and these days get slapped on the back of some select higher-end Topps cards, are no longer foolproof as printing technology continues to improve for home users.

It sounds silly, but it's a legitimate prediction that were not too far off from embedded microchips in hit cards to be able to track them and ensure authenticity.

Not to hijack this post into a "state of the hobby" rant, but for a 30-something guy like myself with no kids to pass my cards onto or any appreciative beneficiary like that in place, the thought of my collection being some sort of rainy day retirement fund really isn't realistic at this point.

It seems that the majority of serious card collectors are a few years older than me. The few younger collectors out there are usually more interested in the big hits, often football or basketball, with baseball continuing to lose market share as America's Pastime. Not to be too morbid about it, but thirty/forty years from now, a lot of collectors will be dropping off, with a smaller next generation of collectors remaining to take their place. The supply and demand shift should make a lot of classic cards more affordable, on the bright side. Add to that dwindling interest in baseball and the ease of counterfeiting cards on the average home computer, the future investment potential for cards is pretty weak.

So, as anyone reading knows, be sure you're collecting because you love it, not for financial gain.

But yeah, I'm no expert and I haven't done any research.. just my disjointed, rambling opinion. Spending a bunch of money on this particular collecting goal of mine makes me think about stuff like that, I guess.

It would be a cool turnabout, though, if I were able to sell off my Retired autos when I retired, and pay a month or two of rent/mortgage/bonerpills/whatever with the money. We'll see how life shakes out. Maybe I'll request that the cards line my coffin. That'd be sweet, actually. ..though the refraction would be useless with no light in there. Maybe I could be cremated with the cards, giving my ashes a sweet rainbowy sparkle when scattered.

So the goal is to get all 76 refractors before it's my time to check out. Though the "short term" goal is to get all the autos, refractor or not. Just 9 left to go! Here's where I'm at with the set currently:

Red = Need it
Green = Got it
Blue = Refractor acquired (/25)

Group A: Cal Ripken; Nolan Ryan; Carl Yastrzemski; Robin Yount

Group B: Hank Aaron; Ernie Banks; Stan Musial; Duke Snider

Group C: Johnny Bench; Yogi Berra; Whitey Ford; Bob Gibson; Dwight Gooden;Tony Gwynn; Don Mattingly; Brooks Robinson; Mike Schmidt; Tom Seaver; Ozzie Smith

Group D: Wade Boggs; John Candelaria; Jose Canseco; Gary Carter; Carlton Fisk;Ralph Kiner; Paul Molitor; Paul O'Neill; Frank Robinson; Ryne Sandberg; Darryl Strawberry; Don Zimmer

Group E: Buddy Bell; Rod Carew; Bucky Dent; Rob Dibble; Dennis Eckersley; Tony Fernandez; Rollie Fingers; George Foster; Ceasar Geronimo; Kirk Gibson; Goose Gossage; Orel Hershiser; Al Hrabosky; Greg Luzinski; Tony Oliva; Dave Parker; Jimmy Piersall; Alan Trammell;

Group F: Davey Lopes

Group G: Tony Armas; Vida Blue; Tom Brunansky; Bill Buckner; Orlando Cepeda; Darren Daulton; Darrell Evans; Bobby Grich; Ferguson Jenkins; Wally Joyner; Jimmy Key; Ron Kittle; Bill Madlock; Jack McDowell; Dale Murphy; Graig Nettles; Al Oliver; Bobby Richardson; Ron Santo; Dave Stieb; Bruce Sutter; Ron Swoboda; Luis Tiant; Earl Weaver; Maury Wills

Group H: Elroy Face

I'll leave you with some more pics of these photogenic cards.

Thanks for stoppin' by.

Ethan from Playing With My Cards sent me some cards; these ones

Ethan from Playing With My Cards has been one of the top commenters on my blog since the early days, and I love him for it (Don't forget, guys, my blog is currently spam-captcha free! Comment away without fear of needing to enter an annoying code). We seem to be kindred spirits as far as having fun with cards, and our slant to the wacky and random. After nurturing a small stack of cards earmarked for him for several months, I finally sent off a PWE to him recently, and the other day he shot some cards back to me, putting our first trade officially in the books.

San Diego in da house. Even a Tony Gwynn "dis card".. not the first one I've seen, either. It's bullshit, though; Tony is an infallible saint! Though, sure, if he'd kept his BMI down, he'd probably be the all-time hit king right now. Hey, donuts are delicious, I get it. Life's too short to live on kale and chia seeds alone.

Speaking of which, look at baby Rod Beck with his training-wheels mustache! Aw, so cute! I sure hated Rod Beck when he was with the Giants, constantly wrapping up games against the Padres. But later in his career, when he disavowed his years on the dark side and came to San Diego to fill in for an injured Trevor Hoffman, it was impossible not to like him. The quintessential "guy you'd like to have a beer with", he'd not only have a beer with fans, but invite them over and give them beers from his own fridge. Unfortunately his fun-loving lifestyle slipped to dangerous levels and he passed away not long after retiring. Sad. I recently started collecting him as a reminder to celebrate and respect life.

1990 UD Marquis! This is the 1st of hopefully many copies of this cards to arrive via trade (come on, guys, send me all your copies of this card!). Stay tuned for a post updating my project to amass a ridiculous number of this particular card.

Vintage!, including a '73 Topps card to check off the list. Nice!

We close this trade package out with a couple senior league cards of guys I collect. Love 'em. If a new senior league popped up with a team in my town, I'd probably buy season tickets. Do you think the time is right to give this concept a reboot? I do. Fingers crossed some entrepreneuing dude out there makes it happen one of these days.

Thanks for the great cards, Ethan!