a vintage advantage

Expect to see plenty of vintage on this blog in 2021 as my interest in current cards continues to wane (I don't plan to attempt ripping much if any current product this year). I've revived my goal of completing a page of each vintage Topps baseball set, and I've been filling out my new vintage (non-flagship) frankenset. Plus I've also got a few vintage setbuilds in varying stages of advancement, and sometimes I just pick up random singles for PCs or whatever. Such as...

Check it out! I hadn't picked up a playing-days Clemente in a while, and when I saw this '62 Post with a low opening bid, I took a run at it. The first four cards in this post were from the same seller, taking advantage of combined shipping. Not in perfect condition, but just right for my collection.

Clean back, too.

And here's a '61 Post Willie Mays. I threw bids on a handful of cards from the seller and this was another that I ended up with after the dust settled. Again, not in mint condition, but considering the fair price, works just fine for me. Helps kick up my little PC of the Say Hey Kid.

Some light pencil marks on the back that I've resisted the urge to try taking an eraser to.

I also snagged this '60 for my Minnie Minoso collection.

Looks good.

Here's the main card I was after from the seller. Bobby Richardson was one of the few notable rookie cards missing from my 1957 Topps setbuild. Took me a while to find one that looked ok in the price range I was hoping for, but I'm happy with this one.

Just barely makes it out of my personal "upgrade needed" threshold. It's from the toughest series of '57, so you can't be too choosy unless you really want to pay up.

Here are a couple more rookie cards of All-Stars that I needed for my set. Chris the Collector surprised me with this pair recently.

Thanks again, Chris! Very much appreciated!

About half my recent Sportlots box order was vintage cards, including a couple more '57 needs plus Don Larsen for my '64 build. It's been slow going, but I'm nearing 80% complete with both. Doubt I'll complete either this year.. maybe in 2022.

A more realistic goal for me this year would be to finish off at least one of the 70s sets I've got in the works. Thanks to these from Sportlots, I now have only 29 cards left on my 1974 wantlist, though the remaining cards are pretty much all HOFers and "Washington" Padres variations (the latter of which I've been considering cutting bait on). The Red Sox checklist finishes all of those red-bordered inserts for me, though I'd like to upgrade many of them from marked on the back to unmarked.

My 1978 build is a bit further out, with 131 cards still remaining after checking in these four. As always, please check out my wantlists and get in touch if you think you might be able to help me out with anything in trade. Thanks

The Changing of the Wallet Card

Oh yeah, can't forget about my annual Wallet Card update. 

This particular Tony Gwynn 1990 Topps All-Star had the inauspicious honor of being my 2020 wallet card. The "before" pic can be found at the end of last year's wallet card update. Despite spending so much time at home-- and therefore not having a wallet on my person very often-- it still took a lot of wear.

It wasn't all pocket purgatory for Wallet Gwynn; he got some time in the sun...

The only #walletcard photos I recall taking in 2020 were during my Hawaiian vacation in February back before everything went to shit, sharing three such pics in my big post recapping the trip.

Here's one I didn't include in that post since the card came out dark. Man, that vacation is going to go down as one of the best weeks of my life. Good times indeed. Riding that high really helped my wife and I get through the following rough days of last spring.

Here's how the updated binder page looks. My plan is to get through 3 more years to finish the page, then I'll likely either stop doing Wallet Card or pick a "ride or die" card to stick with in perpetuity. Or perhaps I'll keep having a card each year, but pick a different player for a new page. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Drumroll for 2021's lucky dupe...

Yep, I'm continuing the trend with an All-Star card from 1990, but giving Donruss its first turn in my wallet. I've always liked this card a lot since back then, more so than Tony's relatively drab base card in the set.

This dupe already has some dinged corners, so it doesn't hurt me too bad to sacrifice it to getting royally roughed up. Also, you can see it's the corrected variation ("All-Star Game Performance"), not the "Recent Performance" error, which I wouldn't be able to bring myself to destroy, even if those are only worth about 18¢ a pop these days.

Good luck to 90D AS Gwynn in his role as my wallet card for the year 2021. Let's make it a great year!

-  - --o

I was planning to end the post there, but hey, I just got a Sportlots box order in that completed my 1990 Donruss base set, and so might as well tack that onto this post and make it a full-on celebration of that red-headed setchild.

These were the last cards I needed for the main set, the Bonus MVP inserts, and Yaz puzzle. Feels nice to wrap those up, though narrowly missing finishing in its 30th anniversary year which had been my penciled-in goal (and why I bothered to buy these "junk" cards rather than patiently wait for them to eventually trickle in from trades.. buying them on Sportlots in early December, but the "box order" ended up taking a little longer than I was expecting thanks to holiday mail slowage).

Technically I'm not finished with '90 Donruss yet, as I'd still like to complete the Grand Slammer inserts (which were available via cello packs and factory sets, but weren't in wax packs). I still need #6 Will Clark and #12 Bo Jackson.

And someday I'd like to complement this red set with the two blue 1990 Donruss Baseball's Best sets and the green '90 Donruss The Rookies set, I suppose. I'm not going to bother hunting down all the many errors/variations of 1990 Donruss, but wouldn't mind adding the Juan Gonzalez reverse negative (I feel like I might have one buried in my collection somewhere).

I know 1990 Donruss isn't exactly beloved by collectors, but seeing as that year was my introduction to the hobby, I've got a soft spot for cards I was wide-eyed rippin' that summer.

Blake Snell PC

Exciting times to be a Padre fan! I've learned not to get my hopes up too high, but hey, looks like San Diego will be fielding a competitive team for at least the next couple years. Should be fun.

Blake Snell is a guy I've been collecting a bit for the past few years, so it's cool for me to welcome him to my hometown team. Here are the cards I've got in my player collection as of his trade to the Padres.

This 2011 1st Bowman Chrome refractor is a good one to lead off with.

Also have the base version and rookies from Bowman and Bowman Platinum.

Sweet assortment of Topps/Chrome RCs.

More Topps flagship designs.

Other Topps stuff, including a yellow Triple Threads RC #/99.

Ginter, Archives, Heritage, etc.

A few Panini cards. Some of these you can pretend are in Padres uniforms before they brought back the brown.

Closing out with the hits. I pulled the Bowman Inception auto myself back in 2016 (it's signed on-card, though it might not look like it at first glance). Then there's a nice fat jersey swatch, and a dual-relic stickergraph #'d /199 on the back.. solid card.

I'd be happy to receive any Blake Snell cards not pictured here in trade. Looking forward to adding some cards depicting him in brown & gold during the coming year, and fingers crossed for another Cy-caliber season from him.

Phil Niekro PC

We lost yet another baseball great this year with the passing of Phil Niekro last night. :(

Figured I'd pay tribute by documenting my Knucksie PC on the blog today.

There was a time not too long ago when I'd ask for high-end baseball card boxes for Christmas/ my birthday (oh, and thanks for all the birthday/holiday well-wishes in the comments of my previous post, btw!). I pulled this auto from a box of Tribute a couple years ago.

These Rookie Stars cards aren't technically in the player collection, but I've got them in my 1964 (in-progress) and 1965 (completed) Topps sets, so let's show them off here. Ha, did Topps really just reverse the negative for Phil's picture to make it seem different? Hadn't noticed that before. I guess you can do that when the logo on the cap looks the same backwards.

Here's a nice assortment of vintage from the 60s and 70s.

80s Topps (and an OPC).

Modern Topps.

Some playing-days cards from Donruss/Leaf.

And some more modern stuff. I snagged that stickergraph for a good price a while ago (and the similar jersey card came with it) thanks to the numbering on the back...

Christmas Card!

Upper Deck getting into the mix.

Wrapping things up with Fleer and the rest.

Love the '88 Score, his one true sunset card with complete career stats on the back.

So that's what I've got. Only a little over halfway to my standard "100 unique cards" goal, and I wouldn't mind adding to the PC, but I'm pretty much satisfied with how it stands. I've got what are the big bullet points in my eyes:

• rookie card
• memorabilia card
• autograph card
• christmas card
• sunset card

The one thing that'd be on top of my Phil Niekro wantlist would be a card from his short-term stop in Toronto (just 3 games near the end of his long career), but I think 1988 Classic Update Red Travel Edition #199 might be the only option there, and update: I just snagged one on Sportlots for a buck, so hopefully that'll be showing up in a week or so.

Another update: nearly forgot about the 2003 Retired auto.

Thanks for reading.

RIP Knucksie

Happy Holidays from your friends at Baseball Card Breakdown

Happy Holidays, everybody. 2020 is almost over and odds are 2021 will be at least a tiny bit better.

Among the toughest parts of 2020 for me was losing several baseball legends, such as Tom Seaver. I guess we all gotta go sometime, but still sucks. They'll live on in our collections, like this recent pickup for my Archives Reserve Master Set. A beauty!

Hey, a new autoGav! Gavin Stone is the latest Gavin-ograph added to my collection. The Central Arkansas right-hander was drafted 159th overall in the 2020 draft by the Dodgers, joining Gavin Lux as a dynamic duo of LA Gavins.

Numbered 12/25! Ho ho ho!

Following that up with another 12/25 Gavin I picked up earlier this year.

I also ended up with a pair of 1/1 autos, for what that's worth. Gavin Casas decided to withdraw his name from the 2020 draft and instead honor his commitment to Vanderbilt. Can't blame him. Wishing him a great collegiate career, and hopefully we see him as a high draft pick a little ways down the line. 

One more card to share today. Former Dodgers/Rays prospect Jose DeLeon. He got into 5 games for the Reds this past season, though he didn't have great results. But he seems like a good dude on social media. Hopefully he rebounds next year. Most interesting thing about this card for me....

Numbered 12/24! Christmas Eve Cards aren't too common, but it's nice to snag one cheap from time to time. It's my birthday, after all.

Ruby says Merry Christmas, too.

This has been a rough year for me, as for most folks. Haven't had the energy to be a very good trading partner (lagging on sending out cards) or blogger (post count way down this year, no contests/giveaways)-- between trying to figure out working from home during a pandemic and raising an exhausting pupper, I've been stretched a little thin. This coming year should be better, though.

Thanks for reading and wishing you all the happiest of holidays.