12 Days of Christmas Cards: 12th Day (The Festive Finale, with a Peppermint Twist!)

Welcome to the 12th of 12 posts in this holiday extravaganza! I explained it in more detail in the prologue, but essentially I'm celebrating my twelve favorite Christmas Cards (cards that are serial numbered 12/25), one a day till Christmas. We've finally made it to the final day! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Ralph Kiner 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition #'d 12/25

 Christmas Card :

 Holiday Music :
(A Christmas carol / holiday song for each card.)

"O Christmas Tree"

 Wrapping Paper :
(This is the section where I wrap up the card itself: the design, the photo, etc.)

This is a great looking refractor from my favorite high-end set, 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition.

Not only is this an old school Hall of Famer, but what really puts this card up to the top of the Christmas Card List is it just looks Christmasy! Just check out that tree on the left.. That's not Photoshopped, it's actually there! Looks like it would make a fine Christmas tree, good enough to please the fickle Peanuts gang. Young Ralph here looks like a kid who just unwrapped a brand new bat, proudly posing with it in front of the tree while his parents snap a couple photos.

Just a beautiful card and a perfect expression of Christmas in the trading card medium.

Look at that incredible red-to-black text ratio! He sure made the most of a 10-year career.

 Naughty or Nice :
(This is the section where I check my list twice on the subject of the card.)

Ralph Kiner is pretty awesome.

The quickest MLB player to hit 100 Home Runs (376 Games) until passed by Ryan Howard (325 games). The quickest MLB player to hit 200 Home Runs (706 Games) until passed by Ryan Howard (658 games). And the quickest MLB player to hit 300 Home Runs (1,087 Games); Ryan Howard couldn't quite match that one!

Missed 3 years of his younger days serving his country in WWII, limiting his lifetime totals.

After his playing days, became a beloved broadcaster for the Mets.

 Yuletide Stat :
(Here's where I dig around for a Christmas-y stat.)

Well, he's from Santa Rita, NM. Santa Rita!

 Spreading the Christmas Spirit :
(Here's where I photoshop the card to make it even more Christmasy than it already is.)

 Singalong :
(Here's where we keep a running tab of the 12 Days of Christmas Cards so far... in song.)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Two thousand four Topps Retired Ralph Kiner
Two thousand nine Upper Deck Alex Karras
Two thousand four Donruss Vida Blue
Two thousand thirteen Panini Playbook Art Monk
Two thousand thirteen Spencer Scott Benchwarmer
Two thousand four Topps Retired Orlando Cepeda
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf

Happy Holidays, and thanks for joining us for this celebration of Christmas Cards!

 Stocking Stuffer :
(A bit of bonus content)
Thanks again for--- Oh, it's a Christmas Miracle! There's a bonus Christmas Card atop the tree!

Rickey Henderson 2013 Topps Five Star #'d 12/25

 Christmas Card :

ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME????! NICE!

 Holiday Music :
(A Christmas carol / holiday song for each card.)

"We Three Kings"

"We Three Kings" sounds like something Rickey would say about himself, referring to Rickey being the Stolen Base King, the Run King, and the Leadoff Home Run King.

This up there is easily my favorite version of the song, from the Claymation (California Raisins) Christmas Special, featuring some funky camels. Loved it as a kid in the 80s, and thankful for YouTube for reuniting us.

 Wrapping Paper :
(This is the section where I wrap up the card itself: the design, the photo, etc.)

Topps Five Star is apparently a new set, just hitting the market in time for the holidays. It actually debuted last year, but I don't recall ever hearing about it until this month when the '13 set was released. It's one of those high-end, expensive sets. A lot of great autograph and relic inserts in this set, several of which are #'d /25, meaning it's full of lovely Christmas Cards such as this "Rainbow Foil" beauty.

Nice on-card auto. Another very thick card. The back features 5 highlights from the player's career. I'll take it. Better than just "Congratulations!", though I still always prefer full stats on the back.

 Naughty or Nice :
(This is the section where I check my list twice on the subject of the card.)

Rickey is statistically speaking the greatest baseball player of the past 50 years (ignoring the artificially-inflated numbers of Bonds and Clemens).

I've been hankerin' for a certified Rickey auto for a while now, and the fact that I scored a Christmas Card of him is awesome. EXTRA awesome when you consider that RICKEY HENDERSON'S BIRTHDAY IS CHRISTMAS DAY!!! So not only is this a Christmas Card, but IT'S ALSO A BIRTHDAY CARD!!! [Birthday Card = any serial numbered card that is #'d the subject's MM/DD birthday]. So great. So f'ing great!

I feel like I've got some solidarity with him having a holiday birthday, as I just blew out the candles yesterday. I'm not sure how Rickey feels about sharing his big day, but personally, I've always loved having a Christmas Eve birthday. As a kid, I always was out of school for my birthday. Everybody was in a happy, festive mood. Often, extended family would be in town. Lots and lots of presents. Good times.

Rickey's also in a "top tier player collecting goal" of mine as a former Padre in the Hall of Fame. I mean, I'd like him even if he never played for San Diego, but the fact he took a couple tours as a Friar in the (exteeeeeeended) twilight of his career.. well, that's just icing on the cake.

I saw him on TV in this past season's All-Star Game celebrity softball game, and damned if he didn't still look to be in amazing shape, with that sweet, quick swing, like he hadn't missed a beat from his playing days, taking celebrities deep like it was nothing. Honestly, if some MLB club had the balls to invite him to spring training next year, even now, I'd bet you he would not only make the team but have above-league-average OBP and look good doing it. Really!

 Yuletide Stat :
(Here's where I dig around for a Christmas-y stat.)

Rickey Henderson was born on Christmas Day. You can't beat that.

 Spreading the Christmas Spirit :
(Here's where I photoshop the card to make it even more Christmasy than it already is.)

 Singalong :
(Here's where we keep a running tab of the 12 Days of Christmas Cards so far... in song.)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Two thousand thirteen Topps Five Star Rickey Henderson and two thousand four Topps Retired Ralph Kiner
Two thousand nine Upper Deck Alex Karras
Two thousand four Donruss Vida Blue
Two thousand thirteen Panini Playbook Art Monk
Two thousand thirteen Spencer Scott Benchwarmer
Two thousand four Topps Retired Orlando Cepeda
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf

Happy Holidays, and I hope you enjoyed this list of 12+ wonderful Christmas Cards!

 Stocking Stuffer :
(A bit of bonus content)

Well, that's it for the 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I feel like I should make a separate "epilogue" post, but we'll see if I get around to it. Since coming up with the list, I've added a few new additions to my Christmas Card Collection. I should probably show those off.

Thanks again for reading. Hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did. It was stressful and frustrating at times, but overall I'm proud of my work on these past 12 posts, and expect to probably win some sort of Card Blogging Award for it at some point in the near future.

Oh, contest! Contest of Christmas Present! Role call. Are you present? Just leave a comment on this post sometime today (Christmas Day 2013, whooo!). I'll randomize and a lucky winner will get some free cards.
[12/26/13 UPDATE - contest closed. Thanks, everybody! I'll post the winner in the next day or two]

12 Days of Christmas Cards: Epilogue / Contest Winners-a-Plenty

I hope everyone had a great 12/25 and surrounding days. I had a very nice holiday.. good times.

Of course, the excitement here at the Breakdown was with the triumphant conclusion of our 12 Days of Christmas Cards extravaganza. In case you missed it, here's the final list:

Two thousand thirteen Topps Five Star Rickey Henderson and two thousand four Topps Retired Ralph Kiner
Two thousand nine Upper Deck Alex Karras
Two thousand four Donruss Vida Blue
Two thousand thirteen Panini Playbook Art Monk
Two thousand thirteen Spencer Scott Benchwarmer
Two thousand four Topps Retired Orlando Cepeda
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf

If you didn't read it, you should at least give a quick scroll through.. there's some neat photography and amusing photoshop jobs in there.

I've already bitched about how it wasn't my best idea to undertake this pre-Christmas event. Between being very busy at work, preparing to DJ my fiancée's brother's wedding (12/21), and just normal holiday stuff.. I was stressed to the max and very tight on time. But I'm proud I was able to get every post finished and up in time. And yeah, turns out holiday blog readership typically takes a dip, something I wasn't aware of as a rookie blogger. So all my hard work didn't generate the amount of views I was hoping for. I know I should stop caring about web traffic, but man, when you spend a couple hours on a post, and then only 3 or 4 people read it, it can't help but sting a bit.

Anyways, I'm still excited about my budding Christmas Card Collection. But I need to cool down because I've been spending too much money on cards lately (my eBay moratorium that was supposed to last through the end of the year really ended up breaking down after just a month). I should try to limit Christmas Card buying to the month of December, with occasional exceptions.. for example, I really want a Tim Raines 12/25 card ("Jingle Bell Rock", get it? Sorry, I love puns). And I'll be on the lookout for Christmas Cards of "top-tier guys I collect".. especially if I don't have any certified autos from them already.. might as well hold out till I find a nice card #'d 12/25. So expect an occasional post on the subject, even if it doesn't fit the time of year to be talking about Christmas. In a perfect world, I'll get a reputation around the blogosphere as "The Christmas Card guy," and anytime somebody pulls a card #'d 12/25, they'll immediately think of me and contact me about a trade.. or hell, if we're just daydreaming here-- they'll send me the card for free. Ah, the ultimate dream of a card blogger: receiving cards in the mail just because people like your blog. ...Someday!

And speaking of receiving free cards, let's announce the contest winners. Since I got so very few comments on this series of posts, I'm just going to go ahead and send cards to everyone who commented during the 12 Days.

Here are the festive 7:
Daniel Wilson
petethan
Bo
AdamE
night owl
P-town Tom
Nick

Ethan and Greg: well, I think the cards I send you two should count as trade packages, not contest winnings, since I've had some small Dodger stacks going for each of you based on past discussions. Plus Greg just won a contest of mine a month or two ago.

As far as Dan, Bo, Adam, Tom, and Nick.. I guess pick 1 card you want from the prize pool (first come first served), and I'll send ya a PWE with it plus a few cards from your favorite team. So, comment below and/or email me by the end of this weekend.
Thanks, guys!

Oh, and here are the Christmas Cards I've picked up recently:

LaMarr Hoyt. This is my first "cut autograph" card. Cards like this are usually pretty boring and legitimately suspect to me, but it was cheep: $1 plus postage, so grabbed inexpensive autos of Reggie Sanders and Cecil Cooper from the same seller to combine shipping.

Hoyt won the AL Cy in 1983 with the White Sox, but soon sputtered out then finished his career with a couple years in San Diego. Had he made the 12 Days countdown, I probably would have made a "Ho-Ho-Hoyt" joke.

Jim Palmer. Another 2013 Topps Five Star card. Happy to add an auto from this well-known HOFer to my collection-- a Christmas Card, no less. Not quite as exciting as the Rickey I picked up from this same set (see Day 12), but still very nice.

Bert Blyleven. Another kid in the Hall I like. Collecting Christmas Cards is a good excuse for me to get around to picking up "hits" of guys I semi-collect. You'll have to take my word for it since the serial number is on the back, but this is indeed a Christmas Card. Ugly card, but I'll take it.

Now these remaining few I'm going to show aren't "in hand" quite yet, just recently purchasing them in some "Christmas gift to myself" instances.

Spencer Scott! (Sorry for the poorly cropped scan; working with what eBay gives me.) If you were among the lucky few reading the 12 Days of Christmas Cards posts, you'll recognize the lovely Ms. Scott here from the 8th day. She seems to have enchanted me with her beauty to compel me to collect Christmas Cards of her. And the fact that this Christmas Card is ACTUALLY a Christmas Card ("Happy Holidays", at least), well, I had no choice but place a competitive bid. With two 12/25 cards of her, I feel like I'm a Spencer Scott supercollector now, at least when it comes to Christmas Cards.

Everett Williams. My 2nd Padres Christmas Card (after Day 4's X. Nady). A 2nd round pick in 2009, Everett is a weak-hitting outfield prospect. I kinda doubt he'll ever make the bigs, but I'll be pulling for him now.

Damn it!! Don't let me become a Benchwarmer collector! Don't let me do it. Pretty girls are fun to look at (unlimited pretty girl pictures on the internet for free!!!), but there's no need to pay money to own their autograph on a piece of cardboard. No No No! That said, I was thinking with another part of my body again, and placed a bid on another girlie card auto. This one was cheap, BUT STILL.

Oh well, here's some attractive lady named Billie Jo. As another Christmas Card Christmas Card, it was hard to resist. I actually bid on a few more similar cards of other females, but was mercifully outbid on them.

Finally, here we have the great ignitor Paul Molitor. This is another '13 Topps Five Star, but from the cool "Silver Signatures" inserts. These are nice looking cards. You gotta love Molitor. This is my 2nd certified auto of him, after scoring his 2004 Topps Retired card a couple months ago.

So yeah, that's all in my Christmas Card Collection at the moment. I've got a couple sniping bids pending, but after that I'll try to cool out on this mini-collection for a while and focus on some other collecting goals heading into the new year. Among the goals in my sights for 2014 are making serious ground on 1973 Topps and entering "supercolletor" territory for Nate Colbert, as well as continuing building my Greatest Gavins and finishing my 2004 Topps Retired auto set. I'll also work on some player collections, such as Gaylord Perry and Dick Allen. And every year, I like to pick up a poor condition Topps base Mickey Mantle or two. Maybe by the time I die I'll have all 18 (1952-1969). Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: Prologue

It seems just about every collector who's been at it for a while has a quirky "mini-collection" or two (often many). Just something fun to go after other than the favorite team(s), favorite player(s), favorite set(s). It's usually a card trait that means something to you, but doesn't especially make the card more desirable to the general collecting public.

Something like... cards featuring double plays being turned.. or plays at the plate.. night games.. action cards with only dirt (no grass) in the picture (a.k.a. "Tatooine" cards).. cards with photos of players signing autographs.. etc.

Sometimes it's not about the pictures, but rather collecting cards of players who share your birthday.. or are the same religious denomination as you.. guys with funny names.. stuff like that. You could also collect minis.. then you have a mini mini-collection!

My quirky collecting detours include cards of guys who share my first name (Greatest Gavins) and guys from my hometown (East County San Diego).

Another mini-collection I've started this year is Christmas Cards. I'm not talking about greeting cards.. or the early 90s Pro Set football cards featuring Santa or something like that. The Christmas Cards I'm talking about are cards that are serial numbered 12/25. Any trading card that's factory-marked or hand-numbered as the 12th card in a limited run of 25 printings of that particular card.

Dumb? Sure, but it's fun. These are essentially "1/1" cards, so by that definition they are very rare. But at the same time, there are tons of different Christmas Cards out there to chase. As low-run serial numbered cards, they can sometimes be costly, with many of them being certified autographs and/or relics. Could be a top-tier legend.. Could be a fringe prospect who flamed out in A ball.. Could even be a non-baseball card. Any serial #'d 12/25 trading card. Part of the fun of collecting Christmas Cards is there's such a wide variety of stuff that can fit into this niche.

So anyways, I got the idea for the blog to count down 12 Days of Christmas Cards as a play on the "Twelve Days of Christmas". I made a list of my favorites from my collection and I'll be posting them, one per day, culminating with my #1 favorite Christmas Card on December 25th (If you want to get historically accurate, the 12 Days of Christmas technically start on the 25th, but that's not as fun since everyone's sick of Christmas by 12:01 a.m. on the 26th, if not earlier, thanks to it being jammed down our throats all autumn by corporations who want our money).

The countdown starts December 14th, so rejoice! These will be fun posts, I hope, so even if this particular serial number doesn't interest you, the posts will still be worth a read. There will be yuletide puns and singalongs! A festive holiday party in blog form!

Of course I'll be getting into the spirit of giving and you will be visited by three Contests over the course of the event: the Contest of Christmas Past, the Contest of Christmas Present, and the Contest of Christmas Future. They don't really have anything to do with tense, but I wanted to be cute about having 3 contests. Truth be told, I haven't really decided on the contests yet, so we'll see how it shakes out.

Anyways, to warm things up, here are the Christmas Cards I acquired this year that did not make the cut for the top 12.

Dwight Smith, Jr 2011 Playoff Prime Cuts #'d 12/25

Before scoring this card, I didn't know Dwight Smith's kid was a ballplayer. After a rough pro debut year in 2012, Smith, Jr rebounded with a solid '13 season (.284 and 25 stolen bases in A ball). This card isn't great, though. It's a sticker auto, obviously, and Junior seems to have had trouble centering his signature (a big "D" with a little squiggle under it), with a good chunk of it falling below the bottom of the sticker. Come on, kid, shape up!

Austin Aune 2012 Leaf Metal Blue Prismatic Parallel #'d 12/25

Austin Aune is a Yankees prospect, though you couldn't tell from this card. He's definitely not tearing up the minors so far, but might make the bigs someday if he tries really, really hard. At least this is an on-card auto, not a sticker, plus Aune's got the nicest looking signature of all the cards in this post.

Jake Smolinski 2009 Tri Star Projections #'d 12/25

Another fringe prospect. At first glance, this might look like an on-card auto, but take a closer look and you can see the sticker outline. Lame. Smolinski hasn't really impressed all that much in the minors, and spent most of '13 with Miami's AAA club, hitting .258 with 9 HR.

Jordan Todman 2011 Panini Prime #'d 12/25

Yep, our Christmas Card list won't be limited to only baseball. As a Chargers fan, I really like the look of this card. That's easily the most impressive scrap of uniform on a card that I currently own. It even identifies specifically when it was worn on the back (not a game, but rather 5/21/11 NFL Players Rookie Premiere, whatever that is). What kept this Christmas Card off the top 12 is that Todman hasn't done much in the league. He was only with San Diego for a year, spending most of his time on the practice squad. He played for the Vikings practice squad for a while, and now he's starting to get a little real playing time with the Jaguars, probably the worst team in the NFL this year. His signature looks like an ampersand ("&") with a tiny "1" mixed in near the end.

Brandon Lloyd 2011 Panini Prime Signatures #'d 12/25

Another football card that missed making the Top 12 cut. It's the only card in this intro post that features the serial number on the front, proudly proclaiming its Christmas Card status. Lloyd has had some success in the NFL-- specifically a nice 2010 season, when he led the league in receiving yards-- but seems to be done after being released by the Patriots back in March. He's got a bubbly mess of a signature.. it's cute.

Ok, so there are my less-impressive Christmas Cards. Check back starting 12/14 as we get into the good ones!

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 6th day (Wilkins Wonderland)

Welcome to the 6th of 12 posts in this holiday extravaganza! I explained it in more detail in the prologue, but essentially I'm celebrating my twelve favorite Christmas Cards (cards that are serial numbered 12/25), one a day till Christmas. We're at the midway point!

Dominique Wilkins 2012/13 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Endorsements #'d 12/25

 Christmas Card :

Slam Dunk Santa!

 Holiday Music :
(A Christmas carol / holiday song for each card.)

Wilkins Wonderland

 Wrapping Paper :
(This is the section where I wrap up the card itself: the design, the photo, etc.)

This is currently the only basketball Christmas Card I own.

This card is super thick. It's as think as those Upper Deck Sweet Spot cards that have recessed cutouts with autographed manufactured pieces of ball, mitt, or bat. Those at least have a reason for being thick. This card is just super thick for the sake of being thick. Kinda weird. But whatever.

On-card auto with serial number on front. Most certified autos these days feature blue ink, but black still makes an appearance from time to time.

Boring "Congratulations!" back, but at least they squeezed in some vitals. Wow, Paris, France, huh? I didn't know Dominique Wilkins was French.

While I had this card penciled in on the countdown, it just arrived the other day (I didn't mean to cut it so close, but I didn't realize the seller was in Canada.) So I haven't had much time to draft this post, and since I'm tight on time, sorry if it feels like I phoned this one in.

 Naughty or Nice :
(This is the section where I check my list twice on the subject of the card.)

I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I've casually kept a eye on it (very casually, usually) for most of my years as a "sports fan". Dominique Wilkins is definitely a name I knew, so was happy to pick this up and expand my Christmas Card collection into b-ball.

He also shares a last name (for now) with my fiancée, though I'm pretty sure there's no relation (she's white). But his name adds a little bonus point for him in my book.

Since I'm strapped for time at the moment, I'm not going to type up a recap of his career, but if you're interested, here's a link to his Wikipedia entry, and here's his basketball-reference.com page (yes, there's a baseketball-reference! Who would have thought?) I will mention that he's in the Basketball Hall of Fame and his nickname is "The Human Highlight Film", which has gotta be one of the coolest nicknames ever.

 Yuletide Stat :
(Here's where I dig around for a Christmas-y stat.)

Dominique's best Christmas Day performance in the NBA was 1987, when he festively scored 45 points as his Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 106-100.

 Spreading the Christmas Spirit :
(Here's where I photoshop the card to make it even more Christmas-y than it already is.)

 Singalong :
(Here's where we keep a running tab of the 12 Days of Christmas Cards so far... in song.)

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf

Happy Holidays, and see you tomorrow for the next Christmas Card!

 Stocking Stuffer :
(A bit of bonus content)

So, I mentioned my fiancée in this post.. Do any of you guys out there collect card with your significant other? My lady doesn't entirely get my cardboard obsession, but she let's me have my fun without giving me too much shit over it. She even placed a "best offer" bid on a card for me when I had already exhausted the number of offers eBay would allow me to make. (FYI, it was the Yount 2004 Retired Refractor.. we got it!)

This Christmas, I almost pulled the trigger on a couple hobby boxes of Parks & Recreation cards to give her as a gift. It's probably her favorite show currently on the air (I love it too, maybe just a notch below Always Sunny and The Simpsons), so I thought it might be a fun way for us both to enjoy the thrill of ripping a few packs of cards together. But ultimately, the price was a bit too high for me to justify a near-gag gift (about $40-45 for a box, ~$70 for 2). The cards don't have any resale value unless you get a choice auto (one auto per box) such as Amy Poehler or one of the autos with an inscription. (There are also /25 auto parallels.. you know what that means: Christmas Cards! Maybe one day I'll pony up for a Parks n' Rec Christmas Card.) If you buy a box, though, there's a 90% chance you'll just end up with autos from ancillary "TV personality" characters Mo Collins and the guy who plays Perd. Each can be had on eBay for about 5 bucks. If I could find a box for around $30, I'd probably get it for her.. and hopefully help her get a peek into my world of card collecting.. but otherwise, it'll remain a weird thing that I spend a good portion of my free time and disposable income on.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 11th Day (Webster Christmas Episode)

Welcome to the 11th of 12 posts in this holiday extravaganza! I explained it in more detail in the prologue, but essentially I'm celebrating my twelve favorite Christmas Cards (cards that are serial numbered 12/25), one a day till Christmas. Yippee!

Alex Karras 2009 Upper Deck Heroes #'d 12/25

 Christmas Card :

 Holiday Music :
(A Christmas carol / holiday song for each card.)

Santa Claus is Coming To Town

Ok, not an exact match, but isn't he the most cherubic, jolly football player you've ever seen? Total "Santa" type.

And, bonus song, here's one of my favorite more obscure holiday songs, called "Pete's Dad". It's fitting since Karras was a popular TV dad. Karras, like Pete's Dad, suffered from cancer, though it was liver failure that eventually got him. Sad that we lost him last year, but 77 is a lotta years, at least.



 Wrapping Paper :
(This is the section where I wrap up the card itself: the design, the photo, etc.)

This is a great card. The painting recalls classic Topps sets from the 50s.

Serial number on the front. The on-card autograph kinda gets lost in the shadowing of Alex's stomach, but still nice.

The back sucks, though, with two of my card pet peeves: the dreaded "Congratulations!" back and a recycled picture already shown on the front of the card.

 Naughty or Nice :
(This is the section where I check my list twice on the subject of the card.)

I love old football cards. They're just neat and seem "fresher" to me than baseball cards, since I've seen Topps' baseball card designs so many times over the years. Their football card designs, on the other hand, are relatively foreign to me. Fun to check them out.

But the thing is, I know so few old school football players. I've just never been that into football, especially not way back before I was born. I know the big names like Joe Namath and Jim Brown, but not much other than the top superstars of the time. So a guy like Alex Karras (Wikipedia, football-reference) appeals to me because, while he had a very good career, he wasn't quite a Hall of Famer, but really became a part of American culture with his acting. I remember watching Webster when I was a kid, so it's cool to have cards of Webster's dad, even without him being a well-respected football player.

Holy crap, I didn't ever realize till now, researching this post, that he plays Mongo in Blazing Saddles.. Seriously?! How did I not know that? I love that movie and have watched it dozens of times. Wow, so that's just an added bonus. This card is a Christmas Card autograph of a guy who was a 4-time Pro-Bowler, plus starred for years on a very popular sitcom, and had a memorable role in one of the best comedies of all-time.

I'm also just now learning that Webster's mom on the show was Karras' real-life wife, and they were still together when he died. So add to all his accomplishments the rare feat of a lasting Hollywood marriage. Hat's off to the big guy. How awesome was this man?! DAMN!!! Makes me appreciate this card all the more.

 Yuletide Stat :
(Here's where I dig around for a Christmas-y stat.)

The NFL didn't really start playing games on Christmas until just after Karras retired. However, his final NFL game was 12/26/70, a playoff loss to the Cowboys. I'll bet Karras was up all night wassailing, and that hurt his game. Oh well, that's the price you gotta pay for being merry to the fullest.

 Spreading the Christmas Spirit :
(Here's where I photoshop the card to make it even more Christmas-y than it already is.)

 Singalong :
(Here's where we keep a running tab of the 12 Days of Christmas Cards so far... in song.)

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Two thousand nine Upper Deck Alex Karras
Two thousand four Donruss Vida Blue
Two thousand thirteen Panini Playbook Art Monk
Two thousand thirteen Spencer Scott Benchwarmer
Two thousand four Topps Retired Orlando Cepeda
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf

Happy Holidays, and see you tomorrow for the last Christmas Card!

 Stocking Stuffer :
(A bit of bonus content)

Today's my birthday! For reals! If you want to give me a gift, perhaps consider plugging the wonderful Baseball Card Breakdown on your blog. Maybe then there will be a Christmas Miracle and people will actually start reading this 12 Days of Christmas Cards series. Five hits.. FIVE HITS i've been getting lately. So much stress and work to make it all happen for 5 fruckin' hits. Photo taking. Scanning. Photoshopping. Researching. Writing. This'll definitely be the last time I commit myself to daily posting for any specified period.. ESPECIALLY during the holidays, when time is tight enough as it is. I should have given away a 1952 Topps card during it, then maybe people would have bothered reading. Dang. Oh well. Sorry for whining. As is my typical excuse for ranting about something, the blog is called Baseball Card Breakdown, so I'm allowed a breakdown from time to time. Thanks, you five guys out there reading! Have a very Merry Christmas.

Collection Origins: 12/25 Christmas Cards

I've got some quirky avenues of my collection, and one of those is my "Christmas Card collection", which despite the name, isn't Santa cards and stuff like that, but rather any card serial-numbered 12/25 (or 12/24). I've been at it for a while now, with over 200 different such cards. This minicollection debuted on the blog 6 years ago, and I figured a look back at the inaugural class was in order.

I started this blog back in spring of 2013. Later that December, I thought I'd celebrate my then newfound love of cards serial-numbered 12/25 with a series of 12 consecutive posts featuring a different card taking center stage (--the old "12 Days of Christmas" shtick). It turned out to be a lot of work and loaded a bunch of stress onto an already stressful time of year. Plus, the posts didn't even get much traffic so it ended up feeling like a dumb undertaking on my part. LOL. No regrets, but let's say it was a learning experience. (Specifically: a post-per-day blog series is a bad idea, especially in mid December.)

This year, Topps began including variations into their Walmart-exclusive holiday cards that feature silly holiday imagery photoshopped into the pictures of ballplayers on the field. Well, not to toot my own horn, but I was doing that back in 2013 for my 12 Days of Christmas Cards series of posts.

In the spirit of these fun variations, let's revisit the altered holiday cards I made back in 2013. I'm not claiming I gave the folks at Topps the idea... but maybe-just-maybe I helped plant the seed for creating fun holiday-themed versions of their cards.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 1st day (Jody The World)

This post got zero comments. Well, I suppose just adding a simple "snow effect gif" to a card isn't all that interesting. Still though.. ouch. (The serial numbering is on the back, but trust me, this Jody Gerut auto is #'d 12/25.)

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 2nd day (Santonio Claus)
Now we're getting a little more involved. Santa Holmes is looking pretty festive here guiding his sleigh. This post only got one comment, by good ol' "petethan", a favorite blogger of mine back then who ended up stepping away to focus on some real-life drama and now only shows up once in a blue moon commenting on a Night Owl post. I always figured he'd return to blogging once things settled down, but nope. Hope he's doing ok these days.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 3rd day (The Nutcracker)
Jim Piersall as Santa with a big bag of toys over his shoulder is pretty great, if I say so myself! This was the very first 12/25 card I ever added to my collection (purchased via eBay on July 30, 2013), so it's got some added significance for me.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 4th day (Happy Xmas, literally)
As I said back in 2013, "When I can't think of anything cool to do with a card, I either add a snow effect or slap a santa hat on the guy. Went with the latter this time." I was happy to get a Padre onto the list, especially a guy I sorta PC such as Xavier Nady.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 5th day (Moments & Mistletoe)
I thought this one was pretty neat, but looks like I was in the minority as this post got few views and no comments. Hell, Hanley was even still a relevant player at the time! *shrug* The box is filled with toys I was into as a kid in the 80s: Transformers, Star Wars, and GI Joe.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 6th day (Wilkins Wonderland)
Look, he's holding mistletoe over his head trying to get a smooch! And there's a big candy cane over the card for bonus festiveness. Another dud of a post with zero comments. Man, not to whine too much, but it's hard to believe I even kept up with the whole blogging thing after pouring my heart into this series that was so universally ignored. lol. This post even had a cool gif of Santa dunking the card into my stocking.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 7th day (Orlandoly Night)
While Topps might phone it in by lazily changing bats into candy canes (yawn), I think outside the box and change bats into cartons of eggnog, haha. And the reindeer antlers are the icing on the cake. Another post that few read and no one commented on. Maybe if I was on Twitter back then I could have gotten a little traction in the card-collecting community with this stuff, but alas, I didn't start doing the Twitter thing until the following April.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 8th day (Girlie card! Pretty lady!!)
On the 8th day, a little sex appeal was added to the mix. Not much photoshop work on this one (I didn't have much time as I was about to DJ at a wedding reception that evening and was still working out my playlists), but there's mistletoe over Spencer Scott's head and she's holding a candy cane. I've since gotten a Benchwarmers card or two (or several) that are actually Christmas themed, no doctored photo needed. But yeah, speaking of "Collection Origins", this card essentially kicked off my "girlie card" minicollection, something I didn't really realize until looking over these old posts.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 9th day (An Art Monk Christmas)
I went a little overboard on photoshopping this "card" in that all that's left from the card is the Art Monk head pasted into the album cover of one of my all-time favorite holiday records (--well, cassettes). I thought the Monk/Chipmunk gag was kinda clever, though it too was met with crickets where the views and comments would typically be.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 10th day (Vida Blue Christmas)
As us bloggers know, non-baseball posts like Art Monk the day before, typically see a drop in traffic. But surely fan-favorite ballplayer Vida Blue would bring in the readers hand over fist, right? Nope, the 10th Day of this blog series got nothing either. I'm sorry to harp on it so much in this post, but I just think it's funny in a sad way how I spent so much time on these posts only to have them flop so hard. I'm grateful that I've been able to build a decent readership over the years since, and it's pretty rare these days that I don't get at least a comment or two on a new post. I very much appreciate everyone's comments, with Fuji being the clear Commenting MVP of the cardsphere.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 11th Day (Webster Christmas Episode)
Nearly to the end now, with the 11th of 12 posts. Alex Karras (that's his face on the Santa body) was a solid football player and went on to make a name for himself as an actor with parts such as Mongo in Blazing Saddles and the dad on Webster.

12 Days of Christmas Cards: 12th Day (The Festive Finale, with a Peppermint Twist!)
Ok, this might be the coziest picture with a baseball card you will ever see. Just looking at it, I can taste the eggnog and smell the yuletide blend of douglas fir and cinnamon as the fireplace snaps in the background.

This post had a surprise bonus card-- in addition to the Ralph Kiner auto, there was also...

Rickey (Christmas Day birthday boy) tossing out gifts to the good little girls and boys. Gotta love it.

And with that, the 12 Days of Christmas Cards blog series came to a close. You're probably pretty busy right now, but hey if you've got some time to kill, feel free to check out those old posts (and even though they're several years old, don't be shy to comment on them! Better late than never. LOL)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Two thousand thirteen Topps Five Star Rickey Henderson and two thousand four Topps Retired Ralph Kiner
Two thousand nine Upper Deck Alex Karras
Two thousand four Donruss Vida Blue
Two thousand thirteen Panini Playbook Art Monk
Two thousand thirteen Spencer Scott Benchwarmer
Two thousand four Topps Retired Orlando Cepeda
Two thousand twelve thirteen Upper Deck Dominique Wilkins
Two thousand eight Topps Hanley Ramirez
Two thousand one Donruss Xavier Nady
Two thousand four Topps Retired Jim Piersall
Two thousand eleven Santonio Holmes Prime Signatures
And a Jody Gerut two thousand four Leaf


And a bonus post...
My Christmas Card minicollection made its debut on the blog Dec. 12, 2013 in a 12 Days of Christmas Cards "Prologue" to fill readers in on what was in store. (A tip of the cap to Daniel Wilson for being the lone commenter on that post.)

In that unveiling of the minicollection, I showed off 5 cards #'d 12/25 that weren't quite interesting enough to make the cut for the main list of 12. Let's see how this initial batch of Christmas Cards has fared. (These are just as-is; no holiday photoshopping.)

Dwight Smith, Jr 2011 Playoff Prime Cuts #'d 12/25

Back in 2013, I was doubtful Dwight Smith Jr would ever make the majors, but he made his debut in 2017 with a cup of coffee in Toronto, and this past season saw action in 100+ games with Baltimore. Good for him!


Austin Aune 2012 Leaf Metal Blue Prismatic Parallel #'d 12/25

Austin Aune wasn't so lucky. The former Yankee prospect flamed out in 2017 without ever making it out of A-ball.


Jake Smolinski 2009 Tri Star Projections #'d 12/25

Jake Smolinski was another guy I didn't see having much future in back in 2013-- When I first started collecting 12/25 cards, I'd basically just grab anything I could find at a reasonable price.. Nowadays I'm more selective about what I go after.. There are simply too many 12/25 cards in this parallel-happy hobby these days-- but a tip of the cap to Jake; he's managed to see MLB action every year from 2014 through 2019, with the A's most recently.


Jordan Todman 2011 Panini Prime #'d 12/25

Jordan Todman seems to have been out of the NFL since 2017 without ever making much of a name for himself. At the time, this being a Chargers card was a plus for me. Now? Eh, not so much. (They're dead to me since leaving San Diego.) Nice bit of patch here, at least.


Brandon Lloyd 2011 Panini Prime Signatures #'d 12/25

Back when I originally showed this card in 2013, I said it looked like Brandon Lloyd's career was done after not playing in 2013. But it must have been a Christmas miracle, as he came back in 2014 for a swan song season with the 49ers.

And that wraps up this look back at the inaugural batch of my Christmas Card minicollection. These 18 cards kicked off the collection nicely in 2013, and they have a place in my heart even though if I were to work up a list of my "Top 12 (or 25) xmas cards" today (possible future post idea?) only the Rickey Henderson would be a lock.

Oh, and as for "Collection Origins" in the post title (possible recurring blog series?).. I think when I returned to the hobby as an adult after stepping away in 1993, the concept of widespread serial numbering on cards was foreign to me and I wasn't sure how to process it. But seeing "12/25" always made me smile, calling to mind Christmas, holiday memories, and how special that date was to me as a kid.. waiting all year for the 25th of December to finally arrive. So I decided to start collecting cards with that "date" stamped on them. I guess it helped me get onboard with the serial-numbering craze and feel more connected to modern cards in general.

Didn't take long for me to expand into 12/24 cards as well, as that's an even more significant date for me (though parallels numbered to 24 are much less common). Not only is that my birthday, but in my household we'd typically open most of our Christmas presents that evening after a big family dinner, just saving one or two big ones (i.e. whatever Santa brought me, plus stocking stuffers) for Christmas morning. And no, I never resented my birthday being so close to Christmas. I love it, in fact! School's out.. extended family's often around.. everyone's in a festive mood.. And as someone who often gets uncomfortable being the center of attention, it's nice that the holiday helps take the focus off me. I may have been screwed out of a gift here or there due to the dreaded "combined" Bday+Xmas gift, but my mom and rest of the family are/were super cool and I was a somewhat spoiled kid, so it's not like I was ever really hurting for toys or anything.

So that's the story behind me collecting cards numbered 12/25. Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!