Kruk, Luz, and Tom Petty

Here's my usual blogging process:
- "Oh man, I haven't posted anything in a while.. I should work on a post."
- "How about working on one of those big drafts where I need to do some research, get several images, and will be time-consuming?"
- (beat)
- "Nah, let's just show off a recent pickup or two and call it good."
- (repeat)

Here's a beautiful card-- Or at least as "beautiful" as a John Kruk card can be. LOL. This was another instance of me "upgrading" a base auto I had from Topps Retired by scoring a refractor auto parallel. This one had been on eBay for a while, and with motivation from an eBay Bucks promo, I finally pulled the trigger on it. John Kruk is a fun dude to collect, with his everyman physique and the fact his was more of a "character" than a typical ballplayer of the era. And it's cool for me that he's a former Padre (and pictured as such of this 2005 Topps Retired card), though he had already been swapped to Philadelphia by the time I was really following baseball.

Pretty solid career. I like the story where he decided to retire right after getting a hit that brought his lifetime average up to an even .300. You gotta figure he could have stuck around a bit longer if he wanted. These cards typically feature a different photo on the back, but looks like Topps was lazy here and just reused the same picture from the front. But still, cool card.

- - --o

Like Kruk, Greg Luzinski was a working-class ballplayer best known for his time in Philadelphia and who finished his career with the White Sox.

Part of the reason I snagged this one is I got a kick out of it being upside down in the case. I know Topps goes "sticker end down" sometimes, such as with eTopps cards, but very rarely do you see it with Topps Retired cards.

The Bull was (a distant) second to Joe Morgan for NL MVP in 1975. Again runner-up for MVP to the Reds in '77, when George Foster took home the trophy. Got a ring with the Phils in '80.

- -- ---o

Had a little box-break this past weekend. Picked up this pair of unopened 1991 MusiCards shipped for about the price of a blaster. Yeah, maybe seems like a nuclear option when I only needed 27 more cards to complete the base set. But other than Night Owl and Rod, I haven't had much luck trading for these cards. And non-sport cards aren't available on Sportlots (where is the Nonsportlots? lol), so with trying to pick up the cards I need here and there from the likes of COMC and eBay, and the shipping costs involved.. yeah, buying a couple cheap boxes would likely turn out to cost about the same as hunting down 27 singles, plus going the box route gives me some fun ripping time. Even got the ever-so-rare opportunity to get my wife involved in the hobby by asking her to open a pack with me. Good times.

Tom Petty goes straight into a sleeve. Should probably put this baby in a top-loader, too. pic.twitter.com/Lmf4xwOEdL

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) September 21, 2019

Happy to report that the first box included all 27 cards I needed to complete my base set. Now just a handful of variations, promos, and inserts to track down to finish a "master set". I'm keeping the 2nd box sealed for now, but still may end up busting it at some point, mainly hunting for the hologram insert. (Pro Set liked seeding one special hologram card per case or so.. I believe they also did this with their football cards.)

If anybody else happens to be working a set of MusiCards, I've got plenty of dupes now, so let me know. (Setblog for 1991 MusiCards is still on track to kick off next week!)

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One last thing for today...

Fuji turned me on to this Novus stuff for getting out scratches on plastic. While I wasn't able to get it perfect, I scrubbed down the Luzinski for a few minutes and definitely improved it. Specifically around the Phillies logo in the corner, you can see many of the scratches came out. Again, not quite a miracle worker, but the case looks noticeably better after treatment. Now I'll have to go through all my other encased cards and see if I can polish up some of the scuffed ones. Thanks again, Fuji.

And so ends another post. Thanks for reading!

Killebrew killing the Archives urge

Regular readers of the blog might've noticed that I haven't featured any 2019 Archives here yet even though it's been out for a few weeks now. It's been my favorite current product since I returned to the hobby circa 2012. I've been in the habit of buying a hobby box or two of it every year.

But honestly, I think I'm over it now. Just don't have any desire to spend money on it this year. I'd rather buy something that'd be a home run for my collection.

And so I took the funds I would have spent on a couple Archives boxes and instead used them for this...

I already had the base version of this 2003 Topps Retired Harmon Killebrew autograph, but you know I'm a sucker for the refractor versions. Had to jump at this guy when it popped up on eBay recently with a reasonable buy-it-now price.

Heck of a career. Good dude, too. Card is numbered 09/25.

Here's an alternate refraction look at it.

I think it's a beautiful card and doubt I could possibly pull anything from Archives that I'd love more.

I've been trying to cut down on the incoming clutter of my collection by limiting the unopened product I bust. Sure, I've been adding some overproduction era sets to my collection lately, resulting in big "net gains" or whatever if you're just looking at number of cards coming in, but hey, a junk set is like 792 cards that are all "keepers" (with sentimental value from my days collecting as a kid in the early 90s). Buying a hobby box of new stuff might give me a handful of keepers and then a fat stack of unwanted cards to be saddled with. And with trading slowing down for me the past couple years, dealing with that is just not that appealing for the price.

Anyways, have a great weekend.

Rod/Fuji Team-up

I mentioned in my recent card show recap that I was anxious to get the cards Rod had for me. Let's take a look at those now.

1991 MusiCards needs! This lot got me down to about 30 left (not counting the various promo cards, which I'd also like to track down). I'm kicking off a setblog for these (and more-- via customs) soon and I'm really excited about it. Rambling about music (and my youth) is one of my favorite things to do! I've already started drafting the first couple posts and it's been a lot of fun. I hope you readers follow/comment along, though I know non-baseball stuff is less exciting to the cardsphere on the whole. Anyways, stay tuned for that official announcement/link coming in October. ...probably accompanied by a contest offering up some impressive cards to bribe people to checking it out.

Rod also surprised me with a near-complete base set of 1991 Brockum Rock Cards. These are cool too, though not quite as close to my heart, as I was never a huge metal/ hard rock guy. And while I ripped some MusiCard packs back in the day, I think these are the first Brockum Rock Cards in my collection. Seems to only be missing #205 Jon Anderson (of Yes). Turns out there are also variations due to Brockum mixing up the back photos of two members of Exodus (--to be fair, they are similar looking guys.) I need #127 COR (white shirt in back photo), #141 COR (white shirt in back photo), and #198 ERR (black shirt in back photo). I was a little bummed there isn't a GNR card in there. Axl has a rare promo card, but nothing in the base set.

The music cards from Rod continue with a full 100-card set of 1993 American Bandstand. TCDB says the set is 101 cards large, but then only lists 100 cards on the checklist with no variations, so I'm not sure what the 101st card is supposed to be.. perhaps the unnumbered hologram insert. Looks like there are also "Legends Signatures" autograph inserts-- each numbered to just 100-- of Dick Clark, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Smokey Robinson. Wow! Those would be sweet pulls. American Bandstand's heyday was before my time, so I never watched the show much, but there are some acts in there I like.

Rod also was the middle man for some cards Fuji brought up with him and handed off when he briefly met up at Rod's work a few weeks back.

Nice trio of Didi rookies!

And a lot of early George Springer USA cards!

Very cool.. Thanks, Fuji!

And closing out the post with one more card from Rod...

Awesome! I know Rod has cranked out several customs of his own likeness over the years, though I don't recall ever being the lucky recipient of one before. So in the wake of my Night Owl TTM success, I made sure to ask for an auto for my budding minicollection of trader bud cards. I'll have to do a post soon recapping what-all I've got so far.

Big thanks as always, Rod!

Fred Willard is the best

The other day I realized I frickin' love Fred Willard. If I'm watching something and he pops on screen, my day instantly improves. The living legend turns 80 today, and so I figured I'd pay a little tribute to him by showing off this autograph I picked up recently.

Yeah, as I say, I had a revelation that Fred Willard is the man a few days ago, and so I checked on eBay to see if he had any autograph cards on the market. Turns out, yes, he's got autos in 2017 Leaf Pop Century which can be found at reasonable prices, so I snatched one up. I thought briefly about making a custom overlay for this stickergraph-- likely featuring his character travel agent Wally Kogen from the 1999 Simpsons episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"-- but ultimately decided the photo Leaf used was nice enough.

He is best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap; the Christopher Guest mockumentary films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots; and the Anchorman films. 

Never got much leading man work, but his minor roles always elevated whatever he was in. He's done guest spots on Get Smart, The Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, Mama's Family, The Golden Girls, Married... with Children, Family Matters, Murphy Brown, Roseanne, Friends, The Wayans Bros., Mad About You, and a ton more. I could copy & paste more highlights, but it's too much so just check his wikipedia entry if you want.

Recently, he's been popping up in silly guest spots on Jimmy Kimmel Live, my favorite current late night talk show, and he's always hilarious.

Great to get him into my card collection.
Happy Birthday, Fred!

Doug and GCA trade packages

In the past few days I've gotten quality trade packages from Doug in Canada and GCA.

First up are the Sportscards From The Dollar Store:

Some great additions to my Tatis Jr PC! He sure did give Padres fans something to be excited about this year, though he had a hard time staying on the field. Hopefully his injury issues this season were just a fluke and he comes back strong in 2020.

A few more interesting Pads from Panini. I believe the Urias is #/50.

Some more young Padres. Chris Paddack had an impressive rookie year for San Diego.

We close out this package from the great white north with a selection of 2019 Heritage High Number Padres and a Kevin Kouzmanoff auto.

Thanks, Doug! Great stuff. I'm putting together a nice return for you.

 -   - - - -o

Now here's some stuff from GCA.

A couple numbered Andre Dawson cards, plus Pops and Bird.. very nice.

Big-name needs for my 1974 setbuild! Chugging along there.

But the bulk of Greg's package was a big lot of Pedro Martinez.

So many Pedros!! I think this gets him up into the Hundred Card Club and off my main wantlist.

Thanks a lot, GCA! I always seem to be trying to catch up returning the favor for all the great cards you send my way, but I hope to balance the scales soon!

Card Show Contusion

The monthly Portland card show rolled around today. Honestly, I was mostly just excited to meet up with Padrographs Rod because I knew he had some cards for me, including 1991 MusiCards needs (the main set I've been obsessing over lately). So anything I bought at the show would be gravy. But turns out I picked up a bunch of good stuff.

I'm starting to feel a little swamped in cardboard, so this post will be a less exhaustive look at my haul compared to most card show recaps I've done where I show off nearly every card I got over a few posts. No, this will just hit the best stuff all in one post.

My biggest purchase of the day was a big lot of vintage. Spent $100 on this, getting the guy to throw in the bag of '58 Topps.. which I'm not working on, but figured it could be solid trade fodder. And yes, that's a real card taped to the '72 box.. ouch! Thankfully, I was able to remove the tape from it without any damage and add it to its brothers in the box.

I already have a bit over half of 1972 Topps, and there's probably over half a set here, so after the dust settles, I'm hoping this lot gets me approaching 90%. I didn't flip through the box too much before I bought it, but I saw plenty of high numbers, which was all I needed to see. Prior to this I had zero cards in the 700s, and this lot will help me get a foothold up there. There are also lots of dupes, so let me know if you're working on this set.

Probably about 200 cards in the 1970 Topps lot. Again, lots of high numbers made this an easy purchase for me. Hell, the Oscar Gamble rookie alone was almost worth the price of the box ($20+ on COMC). I only have 12.43% of the set prior to this, so there shouldn't be too many dupes for me in here.

Dimebox! Nearly bought a whole box but the guy wanted a bit more than I wanted to pay to be saddled with a bunch of football/basketball that would be useless to me, so I settled for $5 worth of stuff I picked out.

#Prospecting. Acuña here and the rest of the cards from this point on all ran me 50¢ each.

Weird Griffey things.

Betts refractor.

Pretty legit Nolan Ryan lot right here.

I won't pass up a '91 Desert Shield for 50¢. You could do worse than Mickey Morandini.

More cards.

A couple nice minis.

Let's close it out with this impressive trio. Brock Holt auto (the only player in MLB history to hit for the cycle in the postseason), Kris Bryant /99, and Reggie Sanders (Padres!) Pacific /67.

Thanks for reading. I'll cover the stuff from Rod in another post, but this wraps up the highlights from my card show haul.

TTM Success: Night Owl!

Here's a fun one that just came back.. I got noted cardblogger Night Owl's autograph on a real minor league card that features a photo he's in.

How cool is this? Got his signature plus a nice "night owl" inscription. Looks great! And as someone who's name also starts with G, it's interesting to me to check out how other people sign a capital G.

Night Owl referenced this card in a post earlier this year (and linked to an older post where he got more into it.):

"This is the card where I make my trading card debut. I'm the guy in the press box, fourth window from the left, talking to the scorekeeper in the fifth window." 

In the comments of that post, Jeremy asked him if he'd be cool with signing the card, and Greg replied in the affirmative. Sounded like a good idea to me, so I tracked down a copy of the card to send to him.

I don't need to slurp Greg too much here, as if you're reading my blog, you're no doubt already familiar with Night Owl Cards and likely recognize it as the GOAT of baseball card blogs, or at the very least a lock for inclusion on the hypothetical Mount Rushmore of the cardsphere.

I've mentioned before that his blog was my main inspiration for starting Baseball Card Breakdown back in 2013. And funny enough, he recently inspired me to start a new set-blog (kicking off next month). So yeah, he's been a guiding light for me as a blogger for a long time (not to mention a great trading partner) and it's very cool to have him included as a tangible part of my card collection now.

Here's the back of the card, if you were interested. Gotta love old school minor league cards.

Thanks a lot, Greg!
(And hey, coincidentally, it's the 11th blogiversary of Night Owl Cards today!)

I need to round up my other blogger cards and make this a full-fledged minicollection. I think I could at least fill a binder page at this point, perhaps two. Several bloggers make customs of themselves to throw in with card packages to trader buddies, and those are always fun to receive. I know it's not really Night Owl's style to do something like that, but the minor league stadium card is perfect.

Have a great weekend, guys!