It's Pull-Tab Awareness Week! #makepulltabs

Well, it's the week after Shark Week.. you know what that means! That's right, it's Pull-Tab Awareness Week! 

Last year was an unmitigated success, and I hope we can build on that momentum this year. It's the week when every considerate card collector/trader/seller worldwide joins forces to spread the word of pull tabs, as we try valiantly to reach those who are not yet enlightened to the ways of the pull tab.

It's one of the biggest plights for the sportscard collecting enthusiast of today:

Scotch tape.

Specifically, irresponsible usage of scotch tape to protect cards.

Don't get me wrong, tape is a must-have item for anyone who ever ships cards. A piece of tape over the opening of a top loader prevents the card from slipping out and potentially being damaged in shipment. (At some point we've all been the victim of a negligent newb card seller who just throws a top-loader into a bubble mailer willy-nilly and you open to the horrific sight of the card poking out, with a dinged corner or two.) A few cards secured between a couple pieces of protective cardboard by some tape is also a good way to keep them safe from the rigors of interstate travel.

But too often, the person mailing the cards doesn't take a moment to think about the recipient. I'm sure you've been in the frustrating situation many times: spending what seems like several minutes chipping away at a piece of tape with your fingernail, trying to free your newly obtained card(s). Such a pain! You could also use a knife or scissor blade to cut the tape, but you run the risk of slipping and cutting in too far, potentially damaging the cards. And either way, if it's a top loader, now you've got a trashy-looking top loader with a cut-up piece of tape on it.. time to get your fingernails involved again. Depending on the tape, it could take just a moment, or it could be on there so badly (chipping off in tiny brittle bits, or not coming off at all), that the card holder is essentially ruined. Even in the best-case scenario, some Goo Gone is usually needed to remove the sticky tape residue.

This disheartening scene could easily be avoided!

All the sender needs to do is spend two seconds to fold over a tiny piece of tape, creating a handy pull-tab. This pull-tab makes it super easy for the recipient to grab hold of the tape and peel it off in one efficient motion. No dangerous blades or fingernail frustration needed!

CREATING A PULL-TAB

Step 1: Apply tape to one side.

Step 2: At the end of the remaining tape, fold over a piece about a centimeter long, with the sticky part being stuck against itself, creating a non-sticky pull-tab roughly the shape of a square.

Step 3: Apply the remaining tape to the other side.

Tips:

• You can also double up on the pull-tabs to make opening cards later even easier. Just follow the above process for each side of the tape you apply.

• It's also nice to write "pull" on either the tab itself or on the protective cardboard with an arrow pointing to the tab. This is helpful for individuals who might not immediately recognize the tab you've thoughtfully created for them.

Advanced Pro Tips:

• Blue painter's tape is the best tape to use! It costs a little more than regular clear scotch tape, but it comes off so easily and residue-free that your recipient will love you for it!
• To be a Super Awesome Card Sender, also put a little piece of paper over the top-loader opening, and tape it on (with pull-tabs, of course!) This will help prevent the rare but tragic occurrence of the card sticking to the tape. This is especially a good idea with old vintage cardboard (more liable to stick and be damaged than today's cards) or when using extra thick top-loaders, such as with relics or other fat cards.

A+++++ transaction!!! Would deal with again!

Warnings:

• Don't make the tab so big that there's not enough sticky part of the tape left to get a secure seal. You want at least a half-inch of sticky part remaining to ensure that the tape holds during transit. If you've got limited tape length to work with, it's better to have a "too small" pull-tab, than "too big". Even if it's too small, at least the recipient can have a good start for his fingernails.

• If you write "pull" to identify the tab, be sure to write gently. Writing too hard could damage the card.

USING A PULL-TAB

Step 1: Pull tab.

Step 2: There is no step 2; you're done, bro! Throw away the tape that easily came off, and enjoy your new card(s) and pristine top-loader!

It's just that easy! How has this not caught on? I'm still amazed at the lack of convenient pull-tabs. I've gotten over a hundred shipments of cards from dudes on eBay, Listia, or other online trades & sales, and only maybe 5% of them had pull-tabs. Why?! It's so easy to do and so handy for the person getting the cards!

YOU CAN HELP

Please, everyone, spread the word. Mention Pull-Tab Awareness Week on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and to your trade buddies, frequented sellers, whatever! Even just one retweet or a little "P.S. It's Pull-Tab Awareness Week. Please use pull tabs" at the bottom of your next blog or social media post! Let's get everyone on the pull-tab bandwagon and make all our lives just a bit better.

Even if it's not a big deal to you personally and you don't mind fighting with stubborn pieces of tape around your cards, chances are it bugs somebody you trade with. Be kind, make pull-tabs!

Yes, it's a "first world problem", but such a senseless thing that shouldn't even be an issue. Let's eradicate this and move forward as a species. It'll save people a lot of time.. and time is money.. money that could be used for feeding the homeless or medical treatment for children.

And while I stress that this be a non-violent movement, an effective way to get eBay card sellers to listen is to hit them where it hurts: their feedback rating. The next time a seller makes you have to cut or scrape away bits of tape to free your card, do not give that seller 5-stars!

Here are some copy-and-paste-ready text and pictures for you to use on Twitter or wherever (feel free to create your own, too, of course):

It's Pull-Tab Awareness Week! When you use tape around sports cards, fold a piece near the end as a handy pull-tab. Please RT! #makepulltabs

Be Cool, be Fab, make a Pull-Tab! Fold over the end of the tape when packaging your sportscards for shipping. #makepulltabs

We're here. We want pull-tabs. Get used to it. #makepulltabs Please RT!

What do we want? Pull Tabs! When do we want it? When people send us cards! #makepulltabs

Hey everybody, please make handy pull tabs by folding the tape ends when taping up cards to ship. Thanks! #makepulltabs

There you go. Tweet it, Re-Tweet it, put it on Facebook, Instagram, let everybody know. Please. Fight the good fight! And remember, it all starts with you. Pull tabs: it's the right thing to do.

Scribble Showcase of some 2005 Topps Retired

Topps issued three consecutive Retired Signature Edition sets in the 00s. The middle child, 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition was the first set I went nuts for after returning to the hobby back around 2012, as I've talked about in the past. I thought the first offering, 2003 Retired, was pretty decent, too. But it took me a while to warm to the third-and-final installment put out under the Retired banner, 2005. The cards just didn't look as good. My main complaint was I felt the autos suffered from a grayed-out box rather than a white area to help the autographs pop. Sort of makes them look like sticker autos at first glance. It's also dumb that the "Topps Certified Autograph Issue" logo is in the autograph area, getting in the way and taking up space; should have been in a top corner instead.

But on the plus side, the 2005 Retired set has a pretty interesting player selection, with guys you don't see with certified autos very often. Plus the cards definitely seem to be more plentiful than the earlier two sets, and often less expensive. And perhaps due to persistently popping up in my eBay searches (and me stalling on my 2004 Retired goal now that I'm down to just a few scare/expensive autos left to find), I eventually started to embrace 2005. While I don't plan to try to collect every auto in the set, I'm happy to throw in reasonable bids here and there on cards of guys I like. My first foray into the set was Lou Brock a few months ago. I've shown off a couple others recently, including the late, great Bob Welch and an unquestionable highlight of my card collection, Nolan Ryan. But now here's a trio of (the several) other 2005 Retired autos I've added over the past few months. With the exception of that Ryan, these each cost me around $5-15 delivered, which I consider pretty reasonable for a nice on-card auto of a well-known name from yesteryear.

You gotta admire Jim Abbott for accomplishing everything he did despite only having one hand. It's still pretty amazing when you think about it. Only Tony Lewis, a minor leaguer who incredibly was able to play the game despite having no bones, according to The Greatest 21 Days blog, can top this story of overcoming a birth defect. Abbott's best years were 1991 and 1992, winning 18 games in '91, and putting up a 2.77 ERA the next year. He threw a no-hitter in 1993. Most impressive may be how he was so adept defensively, leading AL pitchers in assists in 1991 and fielding percentage in both 1992 and 1995. He's a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Without question, an outstanding athlete and admirable human being. And now I've got his autograph!

While Jim Abbott didn't have much longevity in the game relative to other star pitchers, playing only 10 years professionally, this other Jim was a major league pitcher for a whopping 25 seasons. Wow! He's neck and neck with Tommy John for the title of most accomplished pitcher eligible for Cooperstown but not enshrined. Kaat retired just 17 wins shy of the magic number 300. He stuck around long enough to get a ring in his last full season, a key part of St. Louis' bullpen in their Championship season of 1982. He also smacked 16 home runs in his career, good enough to crack the top-20 all-time for pitchers. And he racked up 16 Golden Gloves. Pretty impressive. And now I've got his autograph!

I picked up this card in part to be a possible prize for fellow blogger hiflew in my most recent round of contest mania a few weeks back because he begrudgingly mentioned a couple times that there were no Rockies in the Retired sets. But to be honest, I'm kinda relieved he didn't win because I really like this card and would be sad to part with it. I always kinda liked Charlie Hayes during his playing career. He was scrappy and although never an All-Star, he managed to claw his way onto a major league roster for 14 seasons. The highlight of his career has got to be catching the final out of the 1996 World Series. And now I've got his autograph!

That's all the scribbles to showcase today. See you next time.

73% complete with 73 Topps

The dimebox dig I mentioned the other day wasn't my only buy at the recent card show. I also hit up "my vintage guy" who reminds me of my old high school track coach (I keep half-expecting him to tell me to get my knees up and work my arms). His inventory had expanded since last I'd seen him-- used to be pretty much just 50s and 60s cards, but this time he had a lot of 70s too. I spent some quality time with his 73s, with particular interest in high numbers, and was able to check a bunch off my list. (And yes, I feel like an official baseball card dork now because I did in fact bring a printout of my needs with me.)

I ended up with 38 cards from him for $11. Some were 50 cents each and some were a quarter, but for simplicity's sake, let's just say these cards all cost me 29 cents each.

That's a nice looking high number 3-player rookie card. The Buddy Bell rookie trophy is nice, too. And a (poorly-airbrushed) Denny McLain sunset card is pretty sweet. Photo-wise, gotta give the top prize to that Bob Didier play at the plate.

Last week Mark Hoyle squeezed the last remaining available 73s from his tradables and here they are.

Some great starpower here, with most of these guys being Hall of Famers or at least household names to a baseball fan. Love that Zimmer wearing his Sunday home alts cap, though I think Ray Kroc went a bit too far making his ballteam look like fastfood workers in this instance. (Wait, Kroc didn't buy the team until 1974.. so just a coincidence, I guess. Side note, my great-grandfather was an acquaintance of Ray Kroc back in Oak Park, Illinois in the 40s. He had the opportunity to go in as an investor when McDonalds was about to take off, but decided to pass. This is a bit of a sore spot for my family [for me, anyways]; we could probably be multimillionaires today! Oh well. I shouldn't complain.)

Thanks to my vintage guy at the card show and the always generous Mr. Hoyle, I feel like I'm rounding the corner with this set. Let's see where I'm at...

512/699
73.25% complete
as of 8/10/14

..Yep, as the title of this post alluded to, I've cracked 73% complete with 73 Topps. Lookin' good.

Mark also threw a few 71s in his PWE for good measure...

Great stuff! Thanks for everything, Mark!

I picked up a few 71 "impulse buys" at the card show too:

I obviously didn't bring a printout of my 1971 needs, as the Hal McRae is one I've already got. Whoops. And I know I've said many times that I'm putting together a "condition insensitive" 1971 Topps set, but when I came across these pristine unmarked checklists for a quarter, I just had to jump on them. (Literally! Everybody in the card show just stood and stared as I jumped up and down on these cards. Nah, just a silly joke.)

Though it's not a set I'm working on, I even dipped into a bit of 1970 Topps while I was at it:

Jerry Reuss rookie! The McCovey AS is pretty creased, and I think I may already have it (Really need to get my collection better organized), but for cheap, I'll throw it on my stack. And that Dick McAuliffe? I'm normally not into going after misprints/miscuts, but this card was just too beautifully hypnotic and psychedelic to pass up. That's not an issue with my photo or anything, that's really how it looks! Maybe I will start collecting 1970 Topps, but the catch is, I'll only collect misprints/miscuts from it! Imagine a complete set of cards that look like that McAuliffe? Leafing through that binder would definitely get you high.

Maiden voyage into a dime box! (card show haul)

Went to the local card show today and finally came across something I had previously only heard stories and legends of on the internet: a dime box! I damn near leafed through the entire freakin' thing. I ended up with 57 cards, and the guy was cool enough to round it to $5. That's a sweet 8.77 cents per card! I will now share scans of these 57 cards with you.

I kinda really like 1986 Fleer for some reason. Probably because I have so few cards from it.. So it's like the "freshest" late-80s set for me.

Bagwell rookies. That 91 Bowman isn't quite as bad as the subject of last week's drunken ramble-- at least, not until you look at the fingers.

Most of these are cards that made me say to myself, "You know, I don't have any early cards of this guy. For a dime, why not rectify that?" And that's not really Omar Vizquel in that photo, right?

I think I already had this card. Oh well, it's cool. I should limit my Carlos Delgado PC to only cards when he was a catcher.

Some mid-80s Donruss. Who doesn't love Spike D. Owen? (The D stands for Dee.. like a Simpsons reference!) The dimebox had lots of Eric Davis' other rookies, but I only had eyes for the 85 Donruss. What a great looking card that is!

No vintage from the dimebox.. a couple cards from 1981 are the oldest in this haul. I think I may have received this Fisk in a trade a few months ago. Oh well, look at those socks!

I had gotten that '92 Leaf Frank Thomas off Listia a year or so ago, but the gold foil was in bad shape when it arrived. Might as well upgrade.

Kellogg's for a dime each? Sure!..even if these aren't big names and this was the year they got lazy and didn't mess with making them have any 3D effect. (and ok, I guess there was some vintage if you count these oddballs.)

I already have Lee Smith's '82 Topps. These 2 cards complete the RC trifecta.

Here are the Padres cards from the haul (and the non-Padres cards that in my twisted collector's mind are considered Padres cards; Yes, Cliff Floyd and Miguel Tejada are Padres through and through). Love that 81 Fleer Ozzie. Perhaps the card I was most excited about out of all 57 was the Seth Smith. He's been one of the few San Diego hitters having a respectable year at the plate. I don't think I owned any of his cards, so it was nice to bring home a serial numbered rookie card for about the price of a stick of gum.

Here are some pre-rookies of guys who went on to fine careers.

I wanted to add some more Smoltzes to my collection. The dimebox had a ton of his rookies, but I thought these 2 looked the coolest. (Really, his '89 Topps, '89 Fleer, and standard '89 Donruss are fugly cards.)

Again, no vintage from this haul (ignoring the 73 Kellogg's), but these 3 cards will do the trick in a pinch.

Finally, here're a couple early Vlad cards. That guy was a beast in his prime.

So there you go! 57 cards that set me back a five. No particular card to make you shoot your drink out of your nose, but I'm very happy with the transaction!

Harsh Truths (detective work on 1971 Topps)

Here are some harsh truths that might go against how you grew up thinking:

- Sitting around the campfire is fun, but it's bad for you. The tiny particles from burning wood are terrible for your lungs and can lead to cancer.

- Don't feed ducks bread. It's fun to have them swim/waddle up to you, but bread really isn't good for them, plus it encourages dependence on humans that is dangerous for them.

- Frozen-food boxes should be thrown away, not recycled. They are treated with a coating to help maintain box structure and prevent freezer burn, and it makes them not recyclable and just a hassle for recycling plants to deal with.

- Santa isn't real. There's no such thing as magic. The earth is a cold rock spinning around an indifferent sun as mankind hurls itself toward extinction at an alarming rate.

- And Dick Allen isn't really wearing a Dodgers uniform on his 1971 Topps card. He's airbrushed from a Cardinals uniform.

Exhibit A:

This is the original "match print photo" used on the back of the card, courtesy of a recent Topps Vault eBay auction (I gave it a good go, but wasn't willing to shell out quite enough to win it). Notice the blurring on the helmet to arise suspicion, then the birds on the jersey to remove all doubt.

Lies.

I knew Allen's 71 Topps card photo seemed a bit off, but I wanted to believe it was a legitimate picture of Dick Dodger in the 24½th Century (too bad that never took off as a nickname). Sure, he just joined the team that very year, but it was a high-number card (7th series), so certainly within reason to think Topps could have gotten a spring training or early season photo to use.

But nope, more lies fed to us by the powers that be.

Yeah, in hindsight, that's totally airbrushed. There's no denying it.

Et tu, Topps Super?

"Et tu, bitch."

There you have it. Dick Allen doesn't have any real cards as a Dodger. We all just have to accept it. (He just spent one year in Los Angeles; in 1972 Topps, he's airbrushed into a White Sox uniform.)

His only real card as a Cardinal is his 1971 Kellogg's, but not even Kellogg's could save the day this time.

Dick also doesn't have any real cards as an Oakland A. Or even any fake ones, for that matter. Just fan-made jpgs of cards that never were.

But wait! I may have been hasty with my verdict here. These 1971 photos were not taken at the same time. Note Dick's lack of mustache on the back photo. And I'm no stadium expert, but I believe that's an empty Dodgers Stadium in the background of the front photos, right? So maybe it is a legit shot of him in Dodger blue. But wait another minute. Look at the tops of his shoulders.. Looks to me like Dick's been cut and photoshopped (or the 1971 equivalent of photoshop) onto a fake background. The shadows seem off to me, too. And look how dead the field looks! That photo couldn't have been taken anytime near the season, right? The groundskeepers gotta have more self-respect than to let that happen. Hmm... Not sure what it is, but something funny's going on there.

But hey, wait.. turns out there are other photos from that same Dodgers Stadium shoot out there-- ones that definitely look real, such as this postcard:

Here's another, apparently put out as a collectable stamp:

So ok, based on these other photos, I'm willing to retract my previous statement that the front photo has been airbrushed. Maybe they just did some touching up that made it look weird. But yeah, rest easy, guys, Dodger Dick is essentially real. Half real, at least.

But when was this photo taken? Let's go back to the mustache. Are there any other cards in 1971 Topps featuring a guy with a mustache?! Correct me in the comments if I'm wrong, but this might be the first modern baseball card to break the clean-shaven barrier. Are there any mustaches in 1972 Topps besides Reggie Jackson, who often gets the credit for being the first post-war ballplayer to sport facial hair? This spring training '71 picture (with Japanese baseball great Sadaharu Oh) shows Dick sans stash (source):

Other pictures I've found of Allen from the 1971 season are also without stash. The 71 Topps front photo must've been before he had to shave it off, perhaps even before spring training.. Like a special off-season promotional photo session? So while we can agree it's not airbrushed from a different uniform, there's still some mystery surrounding this card.

Moving on..
Speaking of 1971 Topps, this past weekend I took the time to sort out what I've got from the set enough to fashion a rough wantlist. It's now "live" and you can find it here. It reflects what I had in my "commons" stack, though I still need to pull out the star cards from elsewhere in my collection.. I know I've got the Bench and the Frank Robinson, among others. Back when I first made completing this set an official goal of mine, I estimated I had about 200 cards already. Another harsh reality set in when I realized that was an overly-optimistic estimate, and in reality I'm just over 100 cards deep. Still a whopping 86% of the set left to go. Dang. This'll take me a while, even with no regard for condition.

So yeah, let me know if you've got any 71 Topps to spare. And again, I'm working on an off-condition set, so I am not concerned about what shape the cards are in. Writing, rips, whatever.

And by the way, I actually did just now win that "match print photo" at the top of this post. I typed up in advance that I didn't win it because I really wasn't expecting my modest sniping bid to be enough, but hey, it was! Cool. Sorry for jerking you guys around so much in this post. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Memories of my first Listia win

It's Listia's birthday today. I figured I'd use the opportunity to talk about the first card I ever won on the site.

It was back in September 2012 when I was first diving back into be an obsessed active card collector. I've got Night Owl to thank/blame for introducing me to Listia via his blog. It seemed fun so I signed up.

I've mentioned Gaylord Perry was the first player I decided to be my "#1 guy" in my return to the hobby, and so "gaylord" was a search term I entered a lot.

It didn't take long till I found a beautiful old Gaylord. At the time I wasn't aware it was the final card in the 1966 Topps set. I probably didn't even know what an "SP" was! SP to me meant Smashing Pumpkins. According to the seller, it had a "book value of 200.00 in mint condition" though there was a hardly-noticeable crease, so this copy was probably worth closer to $100. The quality of the picture in the auction wasn't the best (above), so you couldn't really get a good feel for the condition, but seemed pretty good to me. Man, I got obsessed with winning that card. It would haunt my mind, counting down the days till the auction ended. I watched the current bid creep up. I would try to do as many of the lame surveys for free credits as I could. (Most of them bumped me out after a "failing" few initial questions, but I was able to complete one for a nice haul of credits.) Eventually, with just a day or so left, bidding crept up above my amount of credits. I did the unthinkable and actually bought credits from Listia! A noob move, for sure.

But drastic times call for drastic measures. And so I paid like $25 for a few thousand credits.

When the moment of truth came, I dumped my entire stash of credits as time ran out. Thankfully, I won! I got it for 11,161 credits. No regrets, really, except maybe instead of buying credits I would have done a more tactful move such as buying an Amazon giftcard or something, and then auction that off.. I'm pretty sure you'd get a better return for your buck that way.

It seems there's been a lot of inflation on Listia in the past couple years. I bet that same card auctioned off today would land a lot more credits. Listia will sell you 3000 credits for $5, though it seems most big-time Listia users estimate an exchange rate more like $1 = 1000 credits. Either way, 11,161 credits (free shipping) for a 1966 Perry in VG condition is a sweet deal. A similar condition card usually goes for around $50 on eBay.

The card arrived in a thick screw-down case and I was in love. While not exactly mint, it was in better condition than I was expecting, a pleasant surprise for sure. As the final card in the set, not only is it an SP, but tricky to find in good shape. It was the first jewel of my reignited card collection. I had that card proudly displayed for a long while, and it could be seen in the upper right of my blog's original banner. I still collect Gaylord Perry, though with less zeal these days. But yeah, everytime I see that card, it takes me back to those few days, being so bent on winning that auction and stressing out over it, to the glorious relief when I finally landed the card.

I've since be involved in over 400 Listia transactions in these past couple years, usually as buyer but also some auctions of my own. I was pretty crazy with it for a while there. My wife (then-girlfriend) would give me shit for spending so much time on Listia. We'd be out at a restaurant with her folks, and I'd be asking to borrow her phone so I could bid on something that was ending (I don't have a smart phone). Gotten some great cards, as well as gotten skunked a few times by shitty sellers or buyers, but it always worked out eventually. I haven't been super active on there lately, mostly because of credit inflation and me being too lazy to list more auctions of my own to raise spendin' credits.

To that point, if you'll excuse some solicitation to end this post, here's my referral link, in case anyone reading wants to join Listia: https://www.listia.com/signup/2043696
You'll get some free credits for signing up, and I'll get some bonus credits if you eventually create an auction of your own. Plus I also get bonus bonus credits if you sign up today (8/5) as part of their birthday celebration, even if you don't ever sell anything. (BTW, if anybody can help point me to the Listia Birthday Banner [you need to find it and click it for bonus credits], please let me know! UPDATE: here it is.)
But sorry for shilling! Thanks for reading.

No Pepper Games: Todd Guggiana 91 Bowman

This is a sketch card that somehow made it into 1991 Bowman.

Allegedly, there was a man named Todd Guggiana.. never a legitimate prospect, really.. just some guy who was a 19th round draft pick in 1990 and never made it past AA in a brief professional baseball career. But he managed to get a baseball card-- with a foil "MVP" stamp on it, even!-- thanks to a strong campaign at Butte in rookie league in 1990.

Good 1990 and decent 1991, then missed 1992 for some reason, and a decent 1993, then after a weak 1994, the man who was the inspiration for this fingerpainting was done. I mean, maybe this would fly in a painted set from the early 50s, but trying to sneak it in in the 90s??

Here's one of the very few known real photos of Todd G:

I've actually got this factory set.. as does everybody, so it's worthless.. but still cool, what with the Pedro and the one throwback Mike Schmidt.

Todd is turning 46 this Wednesday! Maybe give him a set of watercolors for a present and he can make a card himself. Apparently he's been a scout with the Rangers for many years. Here's what he looks like these days (via facebook):

I'll bet from time to time somebody will ask him to sign his 1991 Bowman card and he just has to look at it and sigh, shaking his head. "I'm signing someone's high school art class assignment." But hey, at least he got a baseball card in a mainstream set, and it's even designated a special "MVP" subset, so that's something to be proud of, I suppose.

I think it should be a rule that all baseball cards state on the back who, if anybody, doctored the image on the front. The painters of the first part of the 20th century.. tobacco cards and whatnot.. sadly lost to time now. And all those nameless airbrush artists from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.. probably for the best that they stay anonymous. And the Photoshop pros used today by Topps to "update" uniforms, or used by Panini to wash away identifying features of uniforms.. These guys should be acknowledged much like in the credits of a feature film. Maybe at least on the company's website or something. But ideally just a little sentence on the back of the card near the copyright information.. "Photo manipulation by Joe Smith." If that was a thing, us collectors would likely have our favorites (and least favorites). Maybe even supercollectors who would go after all cards photoshopped by a certain guy. That'd be funny. But all things considered, I think most collectors would agree, "Don't mess with the photo.. who cares if the uniform is 'wrong'?! Better that than a weirdly edited picture."

And yeah, that brings up the point that the photographer should be listed on the back of a trading card, too. And not just "Photo by Getty Images", but the actual person's name. Oh, in a perfect world.