Return of the Black Refractor

Did you hear there's going to be a separate "Topps Chrome Black" product coming out this year? I'm generally a fan of black refractors, so I took a curious look..

2020 Topps Chrome Black is due out Oct 7.. pre-selling at $350 for a hobby box of just 4 cards (1 auto, 1 refractor parallel, and 2 base cards).

That's gonna be a hard pass from me.

So when it comes to black Chrome cards, I'll stay in the past.. 2004, to be specific. 2004 Topps Retired refractor autos are my main focus, but that's spilled over to the similar looking 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors. I'm crazy enough to be building the entire parallel set. And I've got a notable milestone to trumpet about today: I've just passed the halfway point!

Here are the latest additions that took me over the hump.

I was happy to land the Griffey for just under the price of a blaster. (Seems to be a 3-figure card if graded.. and not even necessarily graded 10.) Nice action shot of Junior robbing a home run from some poor schmuck.

And a sorta similar photo of fellow HOFer Craig Biggio.

As a Padres fan, I especially dig this Trevor Hoffman.

Adrian Beltre is another solid name to check off my wantlist.

A card so nice I bought it twice! Yeah, I got it for a few bucks on eBay.. then discovered it cheaper on Sportlots and decided to grab that one too.. So now I've got a dupe for the Beltre PC.

And some other Sportlots pickups. I just love the look of these cards! Highlights here include fellow Xmas Eve baby Kevin Millwood and 4-time All-Star Troy Glaus.

I've got a few more either on the way or sitting in my COMC inventory, but as far as what's in-hand, here's where I'm at:

248/487
50.92% complete
239 cards left to go

Feel free to take a look at my 2004 Chrome black wantlist and let me know if you've got any I need available for trade.
Thanks!

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #6 Ken Griffey Jr

Don't look now, guys, but I've just posted every day for a week! I haven't done that since-- well damn, I don't know, probably 2018 or maybe even 2017. (In fact, if someone has a lot of time on their hands and wants to go thru my blog's archives to figure out last time I posted here for 7 straight days, be the first to leave a comment on this post letting me know when it was and I'll send you a decent prize PWE for your trouble.) It's not like I'm sitting around bored. In fact, I'm a little behind at work (which is now work-from-home for the most part, and so I might be finding it a little harder to focus on job stuff. Really though I suspect maybe subconsciously I just like the thrill of procrastinating till the last moment and then pulling it out at the end. I seem to go that route more than I should. "Why do today what you could put off until tomorrow?" as the slacker saying goes).

Anyways, let's look at another card in this mini "set blog" I'm doing for 1991 Cardboard Dreams, a bizarre oddball set that I felt deserved a closer look.. but is unimportant enough to label as "ignorable filler posts" but that's just to give myself permission to ramble and be silly under the assumption that nobody's reading. I mean, my view count on these posts goes crazy because of the magic word "cardboard", but I know the majority of those hits are just bots. Truth is I don't know how many real people are reading these posts, and honestly I don't want to know. Hell, I hope it's in single digits. But I hope those few readers enjoy the hell out of them!

The Kid. I'd say the likeness is pretty good on this one compared to some of the other artwork featured in this 16-card set. Of course, I'm in no position to talk. If I did the above card it would be far-and-away the best sports art I ever created.

For comparison, here's the latest sketch card I've made. (I know, right?) I sorted my Tim Duncan cards earlier this month, and after I tweeted about it, a random young lady slid into my DMs asking if I had any Tim Duncan cards for sale. Well, the PC is mine-all-mine, but I did end up with enough dupes to warrant a PWE, so I offered them to her for $5 shipped. She agreed, and then I got the idea to surprise her with a bonus sketchcard thrown in, and here we see how it turned out. I'm not much of an artist-- especially have trouble with faces-- but this one isn't too bad. Doubt I could find anyone to pay me for freehand art like this, but I figure it's appreciated as a surprise freebie.

Speaking of sketches that are kinda fun but nothing to write home about, the back of this Griffey has a doodle of him catching a football from his (out of frame) brother.

• "Dad Ken Sr. is also on the Mariners"
Ken Griffey (Sr.) signed with the Mariners as a free agent on August 29, 1990 after being released by the Reds a few days earlier. He was with them through his final game on May 31, 1991 (Age 41). Not sure exactly when these 1991 Cardboard Dreams cards went into production, but apparently it was before June '91.

• "Only members of same family to ever hit back-to-back homers in same inning"
September 14, 1990. Still the only time this has happened-- at least with father & son.. maybe a pair of brothers or cousins have done it since? I believe the only other father and son to be in the same MLB lineup since the Griffeys occurred a few times in early October 2001 when Tim Raines Sr and Jr both took the field for the Orioles (but they weren't back-to-back in the lineup). If you're curious of the outcome of that game with the Griffey back-to-back jacks? The M's lost to Anaheim in large part due to a pair of dingers by Dave Winfield Sr and Dave Winfield Sr. But it's still a warm & fuzzy moment for MLB regardless of Big Dave's disrespectful 2-tater day at the plate.

The sitcom Schooled recently referenced the back-to-back feat, and even gave screen time to a '91 Topps (Desert Shield!) card of Sr (is it real? top edge seems wonky) and an '89 Topps Traded rookie card of Jr.

And speaking of such things, I should mention the List of Baseball Cards in Movies and TV has recently been updated for the first time in a few months. Check it out if you wanna. I try to change the sidebar image link everytime I update the list, so when that changes, it should tip you off that there's been a significant update. But you might not see it if you read on your phone. I'm curious of the splits between readers using a full-sized web browser and readers on a phone. Is there anywhere in the Blogger dashboard to find that info? I know some blogs tinker with their layout to make them more compatible with phones these days, but I like my layout the way it is and don't plan to make any drastic changes in the foreseeable future.

As far as pitting father against son.. Senior has the edge with career batting average (.296 vs .284), but Junior has well more homers (630 vs. 152). The elder Griffey has bragging rights with two WS rings, though (with those Big Red Machine teams of the mid 70s), while Junior never made it to the Fall Classic.

• "Ken's brother Craig plays football for Ohio State"
Craig was a late draft pick by the Mariners in 1991 and played minor league ball for a few years, making it as far as AAA for 3 games in 1997. Craig had a few cards during his career, most notably a '92 Upper Deck "Bloodlines" card posing with his dad and brother.

Despite the drawing on the card back, Craig never went far with football... but speaking of gridiron Griffeys, Junior's son Trey Griffey (b. 1994) is pursuing a career in the NFL, though hasn't had much success getting into any games yet. But hey, even just being a practice squad member of an NFL team is quite the accomplishment! And you gotta assume he's set financially from the family money.


Hey, going back to talking about stuff we created, here are some customs and gifs I've whipped up recently (I'm better in Photoshop than drawing). If you follow me on Twitter, you might've already seen them. But if you missed them (and/or don't do Twitter), here ya go!

Love this kooky custom of Lou Piniella on a 1992 Stadium Club card!

Oh, as for artistic expression, I should mention I made that background myself. I like it! I also just finally figured out how to do the drop-shadow effect on the card there. Yeah, maybe I'm not exactly the Photoshop master I make myself out to be, lol! But yeah, expect more drop-shadows from me in the future.

4/26/89: Kevin Mitchell makes a spectacular barehanded grab in left on Ozzie Smith's pop fly. Baseball


That was a fun gif. And yeah, another dumb fine background I made. I just like using backgrounds like this to help the card stand out, especially on Twitter where they trim off your edges.

Joan Jett.
'nuff said.

Dimebox Taoism

Oh hey I still have more dimebox cards to show you from that card show two weekends ago.

Griffey holograms! I grabbed 'em all (dupes included), so if anyone needs one, just let me know.

Here are some baseball players.

Here are some more baseball players.

Without the context of this photo, I could tell you that I paid 10¢ per card for a pair of serial-numbered (/150) cards of a player who's high up on the all-time home run list.. and that might be impressive if you didn't know the set or the player.

I should stop buying A-rod cards since I have all I need (some might say more than I need. In fact everyone besides maybe Zippy Zappy would say that), but somehow they still manage to sneak onto my stack, similar to A-rod sneaking his tainted urine passed MLB's drug testers.

Nothing to do with these cards, but we're watching the Game 3 right now and my wife says she honestly isn't familiar with the "Baby Shark" song. Never even heard of it. This from a woman who's a moderator on Reddit, so she typically knows what's going on.

Vlad! A beast in his prime!

Rickey? RICKEY!!

Legends.

I was so happy to snag this Ron Gant. Anytime I can find a card of him after leaving Atlanta seems like a big deal.

More protective coating, you say? Sure thing!

That's So Raven.

2002 Studio. Didn't have much (any?) from this set. Now I've got a few. Six HOFers. (Sheffield was secretly inducted but it wasn't announced in the press.)

2002 Fleer Hot Prospects is the name of the above set. Who knew that Barry Larkin was still considered a "hot prospect" in 2002? Wow! That just goes to show you how prodigious his career was.

The 2 Tinos in the post were picked up just in case the Lost Collector needed them, though I knew it was a long shot.

Here are baseball cards produced with large holes in them. The top row include metal coins in said holes (not the foil-made-to-look-like-a-coin ones, but the actual-metal-coin ones), while the bottom row have translucent pictures in the holes. I think this day must have set my personal record for most cards with holes in them obtained in one day. At least in the past few years.

I'll leave you for today with this pair of Gold Label cards from back when that meant something. Beauties!

A pocketful of dimes well spent, I'd say! I still have more from this haul that I'll likely post about soon (I think I've sorted them into modern baseball cards [big stack], and non-baseball [smaller stack].)

By the way, when I said "That's So Raven" earlier, it didn't have anything to do with cards. Hopefully nobody was like examining the photo trying to figure out what "That's So Raven" had to do with the cards pictured. I was just being silly; Sorry.

Hope you have a great weekend!

card show haul conclusion

Here's the rest of my January 2018 card show haul.

Between card shows and COMC orders, I've picked up a few of these 2005 Leaf Sportscasters inserts lately. I just think they're neat. This Piazza is #'d 17/30 on the back. Seemed like a good deal at 50 cents.

Turns out I've already got these 2 checked off on my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset, but hey, I also collect both these players, so to the respective PCs they'll go.

I was just talking about '97 Fleer Soaring Stars inserts yesterday, and how I'm bummed the glow-in-the-dark parallels turned out to be a myth(understanding). Gotta admit I picked up this pair mainly in a hail mary that maybe they glew [sic]. But no, these do not glow. Oh well, still cool cards, and again, I have PCs for both these guys, so they'll have a home in my collection.

Some non-hits from high-end products.

I hate these cards and regret buying them. But to the PCs they'll go.

Above is a card reminding everyone of the regretful trading away of Ozzie Smith by the Padres. At the time, it didn't seem so bad. Garry Templeton could play a solid short and hit .300. But Garry's numbers declined in San Diego, while Ozzie became a legend in St. Louis.

I'm pretty sure I already have that 1972 HR leaders card, but at just 50 cents, figured I'd grab a dupe since I collect both Stargell and Aaron.

That Optic is my first 2017 Mickey Mantle card. Weird that he's no longer a Topps property.
I've already got a certified autograph of Dale Scott, but was excited to find this signed 1990 T&M Umpires card in the 50 cent bins. Wikipedia is telling me he just recently retired from umpiring due to concussion concerns. All the best in the next chapter of your life, Dale!

Some funky 90s stuff. The Klesko is a Player's Private Issue parallel and has a serial number "346" on the back (not sure what the print-run was there). Oh wait, I looked it up: "The print run on these cards is 999, but a couple things should be noted. First, the first 100 cards were sent to the players themselves, hence the name of the parallel. Second, it was announced after the 1996 season that Topps destroyed a whopping 400 sets, leaving 499 left in circulation." (source)
Then there's a Griffey lenticular card from '95 and a Griffey PowerDeck cd-rom from '99. I should pop that in and check out the highlight reel one of these days.

Hard for me to pass up cheap, serial-numbered Rated Rookies, even if these dudes have cooled off considerably since their top-prospect days.

Here's the last group for today, featuring a couple 2017 Gold Label cards. Before I put the Yoan Moncada on my stack, I strained my eyes for like a minute trying to read the tiny text on the front that says what "class" the card is. When I determined that it's Class 3 (a tough pull) I decided to pull the trigger.

So I think that's it for this show's haul, not including cards I picked up as trade bait. I'll probably put up a trade bait post in the next few days (would love to get a flurry of trades going before the 1/21 increase in postage rates), so check back for that.

Christmas Joy of a Completed Set - 2016 Ginter X

Happy times here at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ, as the COMC order I had been building since June then finalized over the Black Friday weekend was finally delivered yesterday. Now I've got a bunch of blog fodder to get through.

Let's start with this one so it'll give me a chance to squeeze in a post for Sport Card Collectors' #ToppsMomentOfTheYear contest.

While I had several great card-related moments in 2017, the one that jumps to the forefront is pulling a redemption for a Ken Griffey, Jr. auto from a box of 2016 Allen & Ginter X. Hey, an excuse to post this again:

Beautiful!

To recap this all again, Topps was clearing out some 2016 Ginter X boxes for something like 60% off, and I grabbed 3 of them. The boxes had perfect collation and I ended up with the complete base set plus just over half of the SPs. The first auto I pulled was Robinson Cano.. which would have been enough to consider the entire experience a win right there. The second auto was Brian Johnson.. not spectacular, but fine. And then the 3rd auto of course was the glorious Griffey redemption, with the card itself arriving a month or so later.

After such a nice experience with the product, I figured I'd try to finish up the set with the remaining SPs I needed. Matt Stupienski was the real MVP here, sending me most of them in our big trade. Then I picked off a couple via Sportlots, and now the last 2 needs arriving from COMC means I've wrapped it up!

Ethier has the distinction of being the last card secured

This is the first big modern set I've built by hand, as it were, and the first set I've ever put together that included manufactured short-prints. Feels like I cheated a bit thanks to Matt taking most of the pain out of hunting down affordable SPs, just leaving me with 4 to find, which I was able to land for about a buck each.

And back in 2016, I was fortunate enough to win a full set (w/ SPs) of the non-X, regular version of 2016 Allen & Ginter from Matt in his big annual contest(s). But not included was one SSP that I wanted to someday track down to give me a nice extra-complete base set.

Joy of a More-Complete Set!

This Julio Urias no-number SSP was pretty pricey back in 2016 so I had to have some patience, but now after a down season for him that ended with Tommy John, his card prices took a dive and I was able to land this on eBay recently for single-digits shipped. So now I've got the full 351-card set of 2016 Ginter to go along with the 350-card set of 2016 Ginter X (there was no X version of the Urias no-number card). I have no intention of working on the insert/mini sets, so that's a wrap for 2016 Ginter for me. Feels good to have both of these collecting goals finished! Sweet closure, how wonderful you are!

-    -  - - - -------------------------------o

12 Days of Christmas Cards and Beermas - Day 4

On the fourth day of Beermas, my true love gave to me a very appealing Toasted Coconut Chocolate Porter. This definitely seems familiar.. it's got a "refractor" label that I recall admiring before, though I don't think I actually drank one. But I'm a big fan of coconut/chocolate beers, so this is right up my alley. I've just now dranken this one (sic), and can confirm it was a pleasurable experience.

Ha, I just now looked it up on Twitter, and yep, I did tweet about seeing this beer in the grocery store this past April. My wife knows me so well!

This beer's label is a refractor! Maybe I'll check it out if it goes on sale sometime. #collect @omsports42 @walktheplank82 pic.twitter.com/c4CZJbyQw2

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) April 22, 2017

As for the card, it's a red Christmas Card from the COMC order that just showed up. I was hunting for a 12/25 card I could add to my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset, and this fit the bill. Gotta admit I have no recollection of the Ryan Ludwick era in San Diego, as I didn't pay much attention to the Padres from around 2009 through 2013. I picked this card to go with the beer since it's the only refractor in my stack of pending Christmas Cards to feature in this blog series, and I thought a shiny beer should be paired with a shiny card.

It's somewhat of a local beer to me here in Portland, from Caldera Brewing Company a couple hours south in Ashland.

The backs. I've never visited the Caldera Brewery & Restaurant, but maybe someday. The only time I've spent in Ashland was crashing in a motel there one night on the drive up from San Diego. As for Ryan Ludwick, looks like he had a few nice years with the Cardinals. I already had an xfractor of this card in my frankenset, but am happy to upgrade to this Christmas Card.

As you may know, I'm currently running a contest along with this "12 Days" series of posts to bribe you guys to read/comment during a notoriously quiet time on the cardsphere when people often have more important stuff to spend their time on than reading about baseball cards. For what it's worth, the comments have been good, though the views are lower than my blog typically has been pulling in this year. Not that I concern myself too much with that stuff, but of course it's nice to have readers. So anyways, big thanks to those of you reading and commenting!

Ok, here's how the grand prize is looking at the moment. Along with the Don Larsen auto, there are a couple customs, a coupe early cards of champion Astros (here on Team USA), and some assorted Bowman cards including rookie phenom Rhys Hoskins. More cards to come.

For today's bonus entry opportunity, leave a comment below telling me if you have any 12/25 cards in your card collection, and if so, give me some specifics... if you've got more than one, which are your favorites? Don't worry, I won't beg you to trade them to me (though if you've got any available, obviously get in touch, lol!)
Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Ken Griffey Jr auto arrival! (a real nailbiter)

A couple weeks ago, I pulled an incredible Ken Griffey, Jr. autograph redemption card from a box of 2016 Allen & Ginter X. Since redemptions seem to be sent requiring a signature for delivery, I went ahead and had it sent to my work address. This almost backfired on me when it got scheduled for a Friday delivery, which is Veterans Day.. but turns out I don't get that day off work (it was an odd feeling actually being relieved not to get a day off work!), but that ended up being moot as the estimated delivery date got bumped up to Thursday/today. It worked out pretty well and I'll probably start getting more of my important packages sent to work.

Oh so nice! It's a great card and I'm thrilled to have ended up with it.

It's probably my best pull ever.. or at least after the other Griffey auto I pulled last year. I love the thrill of ripping packs, and I definitely have had more than my share of duds (I recently ripped some high-end stuff that was such a huge bust that I don't even plan to blog about it), so it's nice to hit it big once in a while.

This pull is extra special to me because of the backstory around me hitting it. As you might recall, I was ripping those packs to take my mind off a painful finger injury. At first I thought it was just an ingrown nail that would work itself out, but it turned out to be an infection (paronychia) that got pretty nasty. I'll spare you the details or pictures, but essentially the end of my finger swelled up like a purple golfball that hurt like hell. I've been trying to think of a worse medical issue I've ever had to deal with, but I don't think I can come up with anything. I'm fortunate to have lived a generally healthy life. I've never broken a bone, and the only time I've really been "under the knife" is for dental stuff like getting my wisdom teeth removed.

Anyways, how this relates to the Junior auto is when I was at the doctor's office and they were doing what they had to do (again, I'll spare you the gruesome details, but the worst part was the "digital block" to numb my finger), I tried my damndest to keep my mind on the card and how great it would be when it arrived. As the doctor and his student assistant used my hand like a pincushion, I tried to not think about the pain or what they were doing, but rather picture Griffey's sweet swing (and signature) in my mind. It was helpful and I'm very grateful to have pulled that card when I did!

I'm happy to say my finger is feeling a lot better now after the procedure, treatment, and antibiotics, and while it still looks a little "off" it should be back to normal before too long. I've been a chronic nail-biter since I can remember, and nail-biting is what lead to the infection. I'm hopeful that this ordeal will help me finally kick the habit. Definitely never want to go through that again! I've pretty much stopped biting my nails since this all went down. Today I even had to clip my fingernails because they were getting too long... a very rare occurrence for me!! I'm going to do my best to keep it going and be good, hopefully breaking the habit once and for all. Maybe I'm talking out my ass, but I'd say it's tougher to quit biting your nails than it is to quit smoking. With smoking you have to actually go out and buy cigarettes, but with nails, you've got a free unlimited supply literally at your fingertips! haha

So yeah, this is a very special card for me, not just for being the awesome card that it is, but for its important role in a harrowing experience I'll never forget.