Seeking sketch card artists!

I haven't been a big sketch card collector up to this point. I have a few in my collection, but I think they were all either pulled from a pack by myself, or sent to me by trader buddies, or drawn myself. I can't recall ever just buying a sketchcard for myself.

But last year I joined the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Trading Cards group on Facebook, and there is a focus on sketch cards there, with members of the group frequently showing off their 1/1 MST3K sketches. There are also a good number of working sketch card artists in the group, so it's not uncommon to see commissions being offered and sought out.

That got me thinking... What would it take for me to pony up and commission a sketchcard for my collection?

Welp, I've come up with a list of ideas that would get me excited to see in sketch card form. Consider this post a solicitation of sketchcards based on any of the below ideas. If you are an artist and would be interested working something out, please drop me a line with your price, an idea of what you've got in mind for my sketch, and perhaps some examples of your past work. I can be as hands-on as you want.. either let you do your thing and more-or-less surprise me (based on suggestions in this post), or if you prefer I can provide source images and work with you on a specific idea for you to draw.

I'm looking for 2.5" x 3.5" (standard baseball card dimensions), preferably on a solid hunk of cardboard, like the thick blank/dummy cards that are often put into packs to trick pack-searchers. I realize the smaller dimensions might be a limitation to artists who want a big canvas on which to create, but for purposes of this request, I'm looking for a standard size card. That said, I'm very open to creative "interactive" type stuff happening on the card.. windows you can open.. 3D effects.. whatever, as long as I can store it with my other cards. Oh, and I'm fine with either vertical or horizontal cards.

I've got a stockpile of dummy cards should the urge to sketch arise. I should mention I don't really care if the sketch is on an officially branded sketch card template or an aforementioned blank card. I understand that sketch cards on "artist proof"-type blanks typically cost more for commissions-- For example, a baseball player sketch on an official Topps-branded sketch blank is seen as more desirable than a blank dummy card. But for me, I really don't care about that. I'd rather pay less for a "blank" card than pay a premium for an "official" blank to be used.

Ok, so here are some of my ideas...

 Glow-in-the-dark. Do you have any glow-in-the-dark paint/ink? If so, I'd love to have it liberally applied to my sketchcard. Man, I love glowing stuff in all its forms, artwork most definitely included. It's not a requirement to get me excited about a sketch, but it sure helps!

"Mashup" sketches. I'm not really interested in standard drawing of the subject (see below for subject ideas). For example, Crow from MST3K.. I don't have much interest in commissioning a boring drawing of Crow that's essentially similar to many others already out there. I want there to be something cool/funny/interesting going on.

One idea that really perked me up is having my favorite characters (again, see below for subjects) inserted into my favorite album covers. For example, instead of the Fab Four, have Crow, Tom Servo, Joel, and Gypsy crossing Abbey Road. Stuff like that! Below are some examples of favorite albums of mine that I think would be fun with such treatment.

Tom Servo as the focal point of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea's cover would be likely to cause me to pass out from joy overload!

(Pardon the NSFW papier-mâché.)

...Just a few possibilities, but feel free to run any other ideas by me or ask me for a bigger list and I'm sure I can come up with lots more. Alternative rock, indie rock, classic rock.. Plenty of stuff I'm into and I could likely find common ground with any prospective artist.

I also love the idea of my favorite characters put into baseball cards. Like put Crow in a 1965 Topps design or maybe Tom Servo could be in the 1989 Upper Deck design calling to mind the iconic Ken Griffey Jr rookie card. Stuff like that.


SUGGESTED SUBJECT IDEAS

* MST3K - As mentioned, I'm a huge Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. Crow and Tom Servo are probably the 2 subjects I'm most interested in getting on a sketch card. And to a lesser extent, Joel, Mike, Gypsy, The Mads, and really any character from the show's long run (though the Comedy Central era will always be my favorite).

* Pee-Wee Herman. I love Pee-Wee and would be very interested in sketches of him and/or his Playhouse friends. Again, not looking for just a boring sketch of Pee-Wee standing there smiling.. I want to see him doing cool stuff, like again, thrust into my favorite album covers or something else unexpected.

* The Simpsons. Yep, big Simpsons fan. Would love to get a sketch of any of those characters. Again, stuff like put into album covers.. or another cool idea would be mashing up these subject ideas. For example, you could put Homer between Crow and Tom Servo riffing a bad movie! You could have Pee-Wee doing his Tequila dance at Moe's Tavern. Stuff like that!

* Other stuff I'm into and would likely dig characters/scenes in a sketch card:
- Classic Nintendo games (Mario, Metroid, Zelda, etc.. and especially less-popular personal favorites of mine Maniac Mansion and Bionic Commando)
- Star Wars (Baby Yoda?)
- The Goonies
- The Mighty Boosh
- Flight of the Conchords
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force
- G.I. Joe
- Ghostbusters / Real Ghostbusters
- He-Man
- South Park
- Rick & Morty
- AVGN
- Mr. T
- Steven Universe
- Ducktales

Here's a sketch I made for myself a while back that conveys the basic spirit of what I'm looking for (but hopefully executed with better artistic skill than I've got). It's Egon from The Real Ghostbusters bustin' an 8-bit Boo ghost from the Super Mario Brothers universe. And it has glitter on it and glows in the dark!


* My favorite baseball players would be neat as drawn by artists skilled at human likenesses. Again, I'm not looking for a standard sketch of the guy, but rather something creative, such as Tony Gwynn fighting Bowser or crazy crap like that! See also Pro-Vision Fleer cards. I'd be most interested in relatively obscure (non "superstar") players I collect such as Nate Colbert, Dick Allen, Bill Madlock, Bip Roberts, Hoyt Wilhelm, Mike Reinbach, Dave Henderson, Rod Beck, Julio Franco, Ken Caminiti, and Fred McGriff. For better known options, I could also be down with Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Vin Scully, Satchel Paige, Reggie Jackson, and Rickey Henderson. Active favorites include Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr, or Mike Trout. I'd especially love to see guys in "unfamiliar, yet really happened" uniforms.. I'm talking like Clemente as a Dodgers farmhand.. Dick Allen on the Oakland A's at the end of his career.. Reggie Jackson as a Baltimore Oriole.. Bill Madlock as a rookie on the Rangers.. niche stuff like that.


So there you go! A pretty open-ended prompt for artists to run with and create something I'll love and will be happy to pay for.

Which begs the question, does the artist get paid before making the card or after it's done? I haven't really commissioned anything like this before, so I don't know exactly how it works. But we should be able to hammer it out. I should clarify that I'm looking for professional sketch artists who have had cards packed out in real products from the likes of Topps, RRParks, Rittenhouse, Cryptozoic, etc. If you're an amateur artist, I might still be interested, but I'd probably rather trade you for it than buy. Like, any of my trading partners are welcomed to try to surprise me with a sketch they made based off any suggestions in this post.. that'd be awesome!

So again, please get in touch if you'd be interested whipping up a sketchcard along these lines for me. Thanks!

The Shining Baseball Card C0ntest

Last week month-- sorry, I've been sitting on this draft for a while-- the weather got real bad for a few days. Thankfully it didn't get bad-bad like some parts of the country, but it was tense for a while there, the worst of it being on President's Day when the power went out for a few hours in the morning and the internet was out all day (luckily it was a work holiday for my wife and I). With heavy snow falling, we just had to wait it out. And without streaming entertainment, it was old school physical media to the rescue.

Since starting up my big List of Baseball Cards in Movies and TV list a while back, I'm always on high alert to spot trading cards or anything Hobby-related in any entertainment I may find myself viewing. It's always a thrill when I discover something, especially in a favorite movie of mine that I had never previously noticed... like last month when I discovered a bunch of late 80s cards in a scene in Back to the Future Part II. And my latest discovery is in The Shining.

The film was perfect entertainment for an evening snowed in and (sorta) cut off from the world.

I'm generally not much into movies falling under the "horror" genre, but The Shining is one of the few fright flicks that I love. Got it on Blu-ray a couple Christmases ago in a Kubrick bundle with 2001: A Space Odyssey (another fav) and A Clockwork Orange (fine too).

But anywho, yeah, it was a thrill to spot a baseball card hidden in The Shining. I'm curious if anybody else can identify it, and thought it'd be fun to make a little contest out of it.

Yep, I've confidently identified a specific baseball card that is visible in The Shining. Be the first to name it in the comments of this post and win a cardboard prize. (The main reason for the delay posting this is I couldn't decide on a specific prize, so I think I'll just tailor the prize to the winner based on team preference or perhaps put together prize lot options to choose from.)

I'm looking for YEAR / BRAND / PLAYER NAME

Gotta give me all 3 identifying factors. As for the ground rules, let's say you can make one guess per day. Maybe I'll help out with hints in future posts if needed, but we'll see if it comes to that. Due to postage concerns, winner must have a US address to be sent the prize.

Ok, here are three official prize options. Spahn, John, or pray for random. For "option 3" the winner will pick a favorite MLB team and I'll do my best to deliver a good package of cards for ya.

If you don't own the movie but still want to give it an investigative watch, here's a JustWatch link pointing you to places to stream and/or purchase it. (not a sponsored ad or anything, just trying to help.)

Yaz makes his mark in the film, too.. but not in card form.

One hint I can give you right off the bat is that the mystery card happens to be a card listed as a need within my wantlist(s).. and it's been there for a while, not like I just added it since finding out it has a tiny cameo in one of my favorite movies. But hey, it is a good ploy to get people looking at my wantlists.. and well, if while you're there you notice a couple cards I need that you might like to send my way in a friendly little swap, so be it! hah

Thanks for reading and good luck.

What baseball card is featured on screen in The Shining?

Rod keeping me current

A couple weekends ago, I was fortunate enough to get another box of cards from Padrographs Rod on his way home from the monthly card show. From the sounds of it, the show has a drastically different look and feel these days, and not for the better. That's a bummer. Maybe by this time next year it'll be back to its old self?

Anyways, let's rundown some highlights from the box.

Finally got an in-hand look at 2021 Topps. I have no interest in spending money on the stuff, but appreciate the sampling. Cool to score some of my main active PC guys and a few of the hot RCs going into the season.

And some late-calendar 2020 releases that I haven't seen much of.

Padres fan favorites. [Ha, yes, Fernando Tatís, Sr never played for San Diego but he's still become a fan favorite thanks to his genes and fathering.]

Off the beaten path here.

Rod told me he got a few of these 2007 Upper Deck Holiday Inn packs at the show, and was kind enough to throw in a couple unopened for me. Sounds like a good time for a pack rip fix!

Each pack contained a Padres HOF pitcher for me and a goofy Ripken.. awesome!

Thanks again, Rod! Loved going through all the cards and found a bunch of keepers.

Tom Seaver 2003 Retired refractor auto

Here's a big card I recently pulled the trigger on to celebrate my little raise & bonus last month.

Tom Seaver 2003 Topps Retired refractor!

Quality shot of The Franchise smiling with a bat on his shoulder at spring camp in front of some trees and a chain-link fence.

I had a base version of this auto a few years back, but ended up selling it (with the hopes of eventually scoring a refractor to fill the void).

And it's the Christmas Card! So to me this is the equivalent of a superfractor. lol

Always love picking up a new refractor for my Topps Retired collection, especially a legend like Tom Seaver.

cardboard bites

Sometimes when I haven't posted in a few days and want to get a quick post out, I just kinda repeat stuff I've recently tweeted. So here's one of those.

Check out this "cardart" magnet I made using a Vida Blue dupe and remnants of an Upper Deck hologram sticker.

My collection suffered a spill recently when a couple PC boxes got away from me. You hate to see it! Thankfully the only significant damage seemed to be dinged corners of 3 common Jeters that won't haunt me much.

Dick Allen would have celebrated a birthday the other day, but sadly he was called away. The latest pickup for my collection of his is the 1971 O-Pee-Chee card which I've owned a piece of for a while.

I've got like 50 copies of 1989 Upper Deck Tony Gwynn and am sacrificing one for an experiment by putting it up in a sunny spot and seeing how long till there's visible fading. I hope to get it nice and washed out!

I just learned I'm kinda related to a guy who played 84 games in the NFL. That's pretty cool! Yep, my mom's brother's wife's cousin was an offensive lineman for the Packers, '80-86. I'll have to write more about this once I round up a couple of his cards.

Obligatory dog pic. Ruby's chewing on a bone-toy-thing here. She's a big chewer. Loves tearing up cardboard boxes. 10 months old today and still zero cards lost to her.. a stat I'm very proud of! Let's hope for a Ripkenian streak there.

Thanks for stopping by.

Buying Cards I Already Owned [a handwritten post]

 

my "thank you" notes

I usually try to include a little "thanks for the trade" note when I send out return cards to my trader buds. Sometimes it's just on a little piece of blank scratch paper, but sometimes I use custom misprints or the like if I've got something interesting in grabbing distance when I'm packing up the cards.

So just a heads up that if you trade with me and my "thank you" note is a "card" that has writing on back, I don't consider it a "real" custom of mine.. just scratch paper that you won't hurt my feelings if you throw away. But sure, keep it if you wanna. And feel free to request a "real" version of the custom, and once my desktop computer gets fixed (looks like I need to buy a copy of Windows 10 because my Windows 7 on that computer that I use for making customs went kaput), feel free to ask and I'll likely hook you up on our next trade.

Too Many Verlanders recently got such a note on the back of a Frank Drebin. I figured I'd get a post out of a little backstory there.

I recently celebrated the 5-year anniversary at my current place of employment. The slacker that I am, this is easily the longest I've worked at any one company. I recently got a bonus and a raise, and if eBay will do another "eBay Bucks" promo one of these days, I might pull the trigger on some celebratory cardboard. Feels good to be appreciated, yada yada yada

I only mention it because it was at my previous job where I printed out a few "cards" on standard printer paper with the intention of using them for notes, but then I lost interest in that plan and they were cast aside until recently revisiting them when I moved last year.

At first I thought it was cool, but then I started worrying that people might think I was trying to counterfeit cards. But again, these are on regular ol' paper and no one would think they were real in-hand, but still.

I'd feel bad about these going to waste, so I recently started cutting them into card-sized pieces. So if you trade with me sometime in 2021, heads up you might get a bonus "card" printout along for the ride.. with a little note on the back.

Again, just a fun bonus, don't feel like you need to hang onto them.

The worst is when I use a rejected custom where my printer crapped out and the blogger is like "look at this bonus custom Gavin sent me!" and I'm thinking like... "No! That's a reject! Just a note! My customs are usually better looking than that!" LOL

So yeah, just for the record my thank you notes shouldn't be treated like real cards, but I guess that's up to everyone to decide what's worth keeping.

Me? I appreciate thank you notes with trades, but I'm not one of those traders who keeps them. (though I do save [collect] "blogger cards" and more recently also "blogger business cards".) I admit I have a hard time throwing away greeting cards from loved ones. Like when my mom sends me a birthday card, I wrestle with hanging onto it or not. 

Hey, I cherish this card I got from my Aunt Karen around the time I moved up to Portland. I digitalized a bunch of old family photos (so I wouldn't have to move them) and sent DVD copies to the family, and this was a thank-you she sent me.

She's currently battling pancreatic cancer, so it'd be nice if you could send her your prayers / good thoughts. Despite the name "Karen" becoming a bad word in recent years, she's a wonderful person!

Howabout you guys, do you save all greeting cards you get? Maybe just a few special ones? Or do they all end up in the trash?