The End of the Rainbow

With my most recent order to COMC, I finally completed the full rainbow for 2004 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity of Priest Holmes.  Got the Gold and True Blue Parallels to finsh out the eleven card group, including nine parallels and two jersey cards.  Had to look them up on Beckett again to make sure I had 'em all.  Sure looks good in the binder.  I pulled the Regular R&S card (that lives in the page before) and the two jerseys from my GU/auto box to scan them all together.

You have (l to r from top) Regular Rookies & Stars, Emerald jersey /40, Black jersey (patch) /25, Longevity, Longevity parallel /125, Ruby /250, True Blue /249, Sapphire /199, Gold /150, Emerald /99, Holofoil /75, and Black /75.

At some point I want to recount and calculate what percentage of Priest's cards and GU/autos I currently have.  Don't think I've reached supercollector status...yet.

Tale of the tape

 Was just reading Play At The Plate blog and came across an older post about packaging cards.  Check it out here.  He outlines two of the most important things you can do as a trader to protect your cards as well as your fellow trader's sanity.  First up is using the proper tape to secure top loaders. 

 

 Please don't ever use that self-fragmenting brittle clear scotch type tape!!  Blue painters (or regular masking type) tape is much more acceptable.  It is a lot easier to remove and doesn't gum up the top loaders, which leaves them actually usable for storage and display.

But if you must use clear tape, do this:

 

Make a pull tage by folding over the end of the strip, creating a handle.  This is so much better than having to claw for an edge or snip through a piece of tape and leaving it stuck to the top loader or snap box.

Farewell 42

Mariano Rivera closed out his All-Star appearances last night.  I won't repeat what has been well documented about the game.  Didn't actually see it except at a distance.  I figure I made out OK since I missed Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Gotta respect a guy who pitches with such consistency and longevity, even for a Yankee.  Bonus points for rockin out to Metallica when he enters a game.

1949 Bowman Ken Venturi

Geez, nothing like posting every six months or so....

Anyway, I was just watching the Feherty show with the late great Ken Venturi, who had a short ten year PGA golf career (1956-1967), and was the revered broadcaster for CBS for so long before his retirement in 2002.  Venturi passed away on May 17 of this year.
At one point in the interview, Venturi mentioned he had been offered a contract by Lefty O'Doul of the New York Yankees in 1949 at the age of 18.  He turned them down when he “ found out they live a lot better at country clubs than they do in dugouts.”

That gave me the inspiration for the card above.  What might his card have looked like had he forsaken golf for baseball?  I merged an old picture of Ken and Phil Rizzuto.  Then colorized the face and cropped it to size.  Had to cull the nameplate and PSA label name from a few different cards.

Tribute to 1965 Topps tall boys

I've had most of the pieces for this one for a good while, just never finished it.  Since Topps revived this design for a mini set in their 2012 offering, I figured it's a timely choice.  I actually considered using it before the set came out.  Simple enough design.  Just have to find two cards with all the right letters and then crop and blot out the background of a good photo, which was hard to find in Priest's case.  Not a lot of helmetless pics of him out there.  Solid background makes this one real easy.  Just had to raise him up so he was closer to the team name and extend the jersey down a little....

Happy Birthday Dutchess and me! 2013

Happy Birthday to (pregnant) Kate Middleton!  As I mark my 46th year, along with Bart Starr, Jimmy Page, Bob Denver, Crystal Gayle, Richard Nixon, Dave Matthews, Chad "formerly Ocho Cinco" Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Dick Enberg and Muggsy Bogues.

2012 Topps series 2 inserts tweaked

Four posts (and six months) ago, I took the Panini inspired designs of the Topps flagship inserts and tweaked them to look like they were meant to be normal cards instead of relic autos missing the swatches and signatures.  Here's my take on series 2.

The Mound Dominance inserts aren't bad.  The logos could use a bit of growth or something, but I guess they were intended to hit the center of the strike zone.

A Cut Above inserts are actually that - a step above most of the lackluster stuff that came with this set.  Nice die-cut shape and full pictures with text that's just the right size.

Career Days are not so lucky.  There's a big team colored area on half the photo that just basically throws the balance of the whole composition off.  They look like this:

Sorry, no sig for you!  Looks like there was a gunfight just between home plate and the on-deck circle that they couldn't clean up by game time.

Why not just make a properly balanced card like this?  Now I know the photo may not be from that particular game, but what guarantee do we have that the one above IS?   I will admit that I like the daytime photo better for the lighting and contrast behind the logos, but it's the layout that's got to go.

Oh, and did you see DiMaggios?  It's the same photo that was used in Gypsy Queen and Marquee.

 

 

Video Mashup - Da Hawpa

Here's something I've been thinking about doing for a while (ever since the Dish Network ad).  Created just for fun with apologies to Dish Network, the sports media, and all the copyright holders, videographers, etc.  Hope it's good for a laugh.  Wish it would show bigger on Blogger.

Update: I added a shot of Harper-Hater Cole Hamels to make it clearer who was saying "Shaddup!".

A Full C(a)rd of Lumber

Thanks to Check Out My Cards, I have finally finished what I think is the coolest insert set ever.  I now have all 18 Lumber Yard inserts from 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man.
The fronts of the cards are actual (bat? - BB Cardpedia says no.) wood, laser etched with the player photo, team logo and set logo.  The backs have the same photo in real color and a brief blurb about the players exploits.  You can tell these came out mid-season, because a few of the write-ups on active players include details about their performances up to mid-May 2002.  (CardPedia says July)
I just like the way they look and how much detail could be carved into the wood.  The streaks in the scans are just the penny sleeves....

I pulled most of them from boxes of 40-Man as I was building the set, sometimes even from partial boxes (Pujols).  Don't think I ended up with more than one duplicate.
I got the last few from eBay, notably Mantle (for which I probably paid the most), Griffey Jr., and Frank Thomas.  One night last week I arbitrarily Googled the Chipper Jones - the last missing one - and found that Amazon had a listing for it for $12.50.  Upon further investigation, I found it was actually sold by COMC.  So since I had recently created an account, I went in and jumped on it.  Then, to make the shipping worthwhile, I shopped for some other stuff I haven't been able to find - namely inserts from 2005 UD All-Star Classics.  Then I searched for my two latest player collection guys - Brian Matusz and Dan LeFevour.  I ended up with about $60 worth of stuff in that order.

I've seen the whole collection for sale by Kruk Cards on eBay.  Can't remember how much he wanted for them, but I think it was approaching four digits.  I tried not to spend more than just below high book value, keeping it closer to low book in many cases.

 

Here is a bigger scan of A-Rod's card, front and back.  Click on them to see 'em bigger (same goes for any of the other scans).  You can see they replicated the stripes from the back, which ties both sides together nicely.  I like how the wood grain shows in some of them too.

 Now all I have left for a "master set" of this 1182 card monster is to finish the Mark McGwire Flashbacks.  I still need #1  4  7  19  27  30  31  33  34  38  and 39 out of the 40.  When I say master set, I mean all base, and these two insert sets.  I didn't try for the three jersey subsets, or the Electric and Electric Rainbow parallels.   The McGwires can be had for a couple bucks apiece on either COMC or SportLots.  I'll probably clean them up there after I check at this year's National in Baltimore.  But the best part is now over.  I've never seen Lumber Yard inserts at a show, ever.  I always glance at dealer mojo hit cases, but not once did I spot an all wood beauty like those above.  Now I don't have to search any more!

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set - card #6

1934 Diamond Matchcover Dr. Leonard McCoy.  Fonts match better to the green example of these covers.  The name over the football came in a couple different fonts.  I didn't have anything to match the one in the tan original.  Also had a hard time figuring out what to substitute for the football.  Not many sketches of the original NCC-1701 starship out there.  Nice oddball item instead of the same old Topps or Philadelphia designs.  I'm running out of cool designs to use.  There aren't as many nice ones for football as there are for baseball.

My Concise 2012 Topps post

Since there are a ton of posts about Topps' new release, I'll make this quick and efficient.

Base set - Great photos.  Fun shots that aren't overprocessed like 2009 and 10 looked to me.  Numbers are clear and easy to sort.

Parallels - Not real impressed with the golds.  Haven't seen the retail ones yet.

GUs, SPs and giveaways - As usual, didn't pull anyone impressive.  See inserts rant below.  I don't expect to see any of the SPs.  Curious to see what comes up for all my codes this time.

Inserts - Topps has (re?)hired the Panini football design team and they are still lazy bastards.  What they came up with are auto jersey cards and then just removed the good stuff to make the regular insert.  Each insert looks like a football card from Panini's past.  To wit:

Not bad, but why is there still a space for an autograph?

Look familiar? Sorry, no autograph for you!!

Plain

Auto

Relic

Plain (though crummy Chromey)

Auto

 

Relic (in a crappy location)

Only difference is that it seems the 2012 baseball guys are either relics or autos, not both.

Nice design, but it's not finished.

This one has the gall to put it in writing that you got
gypped out of an autograph. Kinda rubs it in your face.

Now what they should have done with this....

...Is finish the coloring.  Now that's not a bad looking card.

 This is the most hideous design of all - redundant pictures that you
can see, and a different one that's faded for no reason. 
Huge blank areas, and a dinky logo that doesn't fill the space. 
Plus, silver foil on grey?  Eccch.

Now that would have been better.  No gaping holes.

Worst part about the whole thing is that I'm still going to go after all of them except the Walkoffs.

Super Bowl summary

 

My condolences to all the sportscasters who are depressed over their man-crush's loss last night to the 9-7 NY Giants.

Good game, but would still have preferred a Harbaugh rematch.

Fausto to Roberto correction - 2011 ToppsTown

The former 28 year old Fausto Carmona, was revealed to actually be 31 year old Roberto Hernandez Heredia after being arrested in his native Dominican Republic.  He was charged with using a false identity, which isn't actually that unusual for Dominican players, so it's been reported.

Too bad the card year is just turning over next month, or Topps et al may have had the opportunity to issue corrected cards of Mr. Heredia.  They might look something like this:

Happy Birthday to me (and the Duchess)

Celebrating my 45th today.  Only two weeks after Christmas, so I don't make a big deal about it.  Missed Elvis by a day, so I've been stuck with Richard Nixon.  Though this morning I learned that Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge was also born this day in 1982.

She's a lot prettier than old Tricky Dick!  Bit far to go for a birthday kiss though...

Questionnaire from Nachos Grande: Autographs

Stumbled upon a questionnaire about autograph cards while browsing a blog linked from another regularly read blog.  Figured I'd post it here so maybe my traffic might increase...


Autograph Questionnaire:

1.  What is the best autograph you own?  2008 Topps Heritage Bill Mazeroski red ink
2.  What is the best autograph that you've ever pulled from a pack of cards?  See #1
3.  What is the worst autograph you've ever pulled from a pack of cards?  Any one of a few early 90's rookie scrubs from a value blaster.  I'll never get rid of them.
4.  Do you try to get autographs through the mail?  If so, what sort of success (or failure) stories do you have?  Nope, never really tried.
5.  Who was the subject of your first ever autograph?  Rocky Colavito (as KC coach) on the back of an Orioles program at a game circa 1982-3.
6.  Do you actively collect any autographs (certain players, teams, brands, etc)?  Priest Holmes (all) and the occasional Redskin or baseball player collection guy that I don't already have.
7.  Which is better:  Autographs or Relics?  Autos are better, but I'd take a multi-color swatch/patch (easiest to find in hockey) over a two-letter scribble signature.
8.  What do you think of cut autos?  Deceased players are fine, otherwise cheesy, especially when they cut up an autographed card and put a piece of it in another card.
9.  What is your favorite autograph design (say in the last 5 years)?  2005 SP Chirography
10.  If you could get the autograph of any five people (dead or alive) who would you want a signature from (and why)?
Harry Truman (favorite president)
Christy Mathewson, Rube Marquard, or John McGraw (for my 1909 NY Giants collection)
Gene Kranz (Apollo Flight Director - always awed by that whole program)
Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner (see posts below)

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set - card #5

 

1955 Topps All-American Mr. Sulu.  Building all the letters took the longest.  Out of the eight or so images that I captured, nobody had a K in their name.  And then there is no common football position with a V, G, or O in it either.  The All Federation text came out the best.  My art program doesn't have a function to make a picture grainy, so the background looks more like video than the newspaper photo pictures in the originals.  Was hoping to get back to these sooner than a month and a half, but since PRP went silent for a while, I don't feel so bad :).   Was Sulu's official title Helmsman or Navigator?  I should know....

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set - card #4

 

1894 Mayo Cut Plug (N302) Mr. Spock.  Tough to match tbe sepia toning.  And all the original subjects are from Harvard, Princeton or Yale.  Had to fudge some letters that weren't available.  Hopefully, you'll find it fascinating.

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set - card #3

 

 1952 Bowman Mr. Scott, engineer of the original USS Enterprise.  Shown here with his second love, Scotch whiskey.  Scotty always had the ability, and the courage (sometimes from the bottle), but he didn't always have the power !

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set

The premiere releases from my tribute to PunkRockPaint's Star Wars... The Retro Baseball card set.  I commented that I was inspired to do a Trek football set but didn't want to copy his idea.  The response was that it wouldn't be copying, it would be an homage, so here we go...

 

 

The first ever football set design (1935 National Chicle) for the most important characters - the captains.

As soon as I saw Rockne's head, I knew which character would go there...