a super 1971 topps super rich allen

because rich allen's array of 1971 releases - his topps flagship card, dell's today stamp, and other issues - featuring photos taken in dodger stadium, i am always looking for an extra copy to put in my dodger stadium mini-collection.

i recently noticed that i did not have a second copy of his short-printed 1971 topps super card, so i took a look on check out my cards.  that's when i spotted this beauty:

looks like little timmy tried to paint rich in to a white sox uniform, or perhaps a few years later, back in to a phillies uniform.  or maybe someone wanted to see what allen would look like as a member of the big red machine. however, time has taken its toll and the paint is chipping away to reveal the dodger blue underneath.  glorious.

1887 Tobin Color Lithographs

Many early examples of baseball cards are actually advertisements for different retail shops. The Tobin Color Lithographs stand out from others that came out in the era because of the detailed caricatures. It's a small set of ten cards, but the lineup is very impressive.

Mike "King" Kelly of the Boston Beaneaters

Cap Anson of the Chicago White Stockings

Dan Brouthers of the Detroit Wolverines

Jack Glasscock of the Indianapolis Hoosiers

Tim Keefe of the New York Giants

Mickey Welch of the New York Giants

Ed Andrews of the Philadelphia Athletics

Charlie Ferguson of the Philadelphia Athletics

Jim McCormick of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys

Paul Hines of the Washington Senators

I can't even decide which I like the most. They all have a strange appeal. The cards remind me of the illustrations in a Humpty Dumpty storybook I read when I was very young.

I would be hard pressed to find them in my collection because my team did not exist yet, but I would never say no to having them in my collection. I love all the oddities you can find and the great artwork out there, if you just dig a little. This set is definitely out of Topps' comfort zone.

Rally Squirrel

Keep this in mind, when you are struggling to find cards of your favorite common player...

The Rally Squirrel has not one, not two, but five cards out there.

On cardboard, it started with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012.

Wanting to explore the league a bit, Rally Squirrel found itself in Philadelphia in 2015.

But Rally Squirrel had had enough of the transient life. It longed for its first home. By 2018, he ended back with the St. Louis Cardinals. All is right with the world again. Rally Squirrel had come home.

Rally Monkey could not be reached for comment.

Bryce Harper Autograph And Laundry Tag Card

2018 Topps Dynasty Autographed Patch Gold #AP-BH5 - Bryce Harper (1/1)

While there are some stupid relic cards out in the collecting world (pens anyone?), this "relic" at least is part of a uniform. The tag off of a uniform.

Topps Dynasty is for the collector that likes to blow "stupid money", as the Phillies like to say. So maybe the Phillies management will go in for this Bryce Harper autographed card with laundry tag relic that is a one of one. I mean it's only $3,999.99 plus $29.99 shipping on eBay. That's a bargain! Especially if you open a PayPal credit card account. That way it's only $167 per month for twenty-four months! Interested yet? Me either.

While I have the lofty, never attainable goal of getting a copy of every card ever made of my favorite team, I would never be able to get a card like this. Nor would I necessarily want it. The concept seems gaudy. The execution looks like it came from the mind of a five year old. My apologies to all five year olds out there. Also, my apologies if this card is your cup of tea. It's just not mine.

This card is a nice dream perhaps, but as a realistic goal... not so much.

Hey. You know who could afford this card? I heard Bryce Harper just got a boat load of cash. Manny Machado did too. Maybe they could buy it and hand it out to a random fan. That sounds nicest of all.

The Card Is Mightier Than The Pen

I present to you... the "Player Used Pen Relic"!

Bryce's expression pretty much says it all. Just when I think I've found all the idiotic relics out there, I find pictures of this one. It's a 1/1, so you know it's worth something.

:::eye roll:::

At least this relic is signed, so there is some kind of value attached to the card. Pens, tablecloths... is there no end to the madness? If this is the state of the hobby, I might have the wrong hobby.

I would be a little angry if I found this in a pack of Topps Tier One. I'd laugh a little too, but that's just me. I don't necessarily want this in my collection, so what kind of resale value would something as "unique" as a pen relic have? It helps that Bryce's signature is on it. It helps that Bryce Harper is one of the most talked about players in the game at the moment. That would push the value up. What would someone be willing to pay for something like this though?

A quick scan of eBay shows that a 1/1 Bryce Harper autographed card is selling on average for $500. Does the used pen add to that value or detract from it? How much would you be willing to pay for a used pen piece? What if it what used by your favorite superstar player? How much would you pay now? What if I threw in a scowling picture of said superstar? How much would you pay? Still not convinced? Final offer. The pen piece, the scowling picture, his autograph and it's the only one out there. It's one of a kind! How much would you pay now?

It seems like Topps is trying to sell Ginsu knives on a late night commercial. Maybe Sham-Wow (it's a sham! Wow!) or something. Have the card companies grave robbed all the relics? Will Indiana Jones have to come ot of retirement to steal them all back?

As you can see, there are way more questions than actual answers when it comes to relics like this. The question still remains... how much would you pay for this card?

2019 Topps Now Manny Machado Relic

I like the idea of Topps Now. It's basically a card on demand system that allows you to order cards of selected events for a 24 hour window. Nice, huh?

Recently, Topps Now has gotten parallel crazy, much like their brick and mortar releases. This card is available in regular for $9.99. It also has relic parallels.

A relic parallel numbered to 99 is $39.99. A relic parallel numbered to 49 is $69.99. A relic parallel numbered to 25 is $99.99. A relic parallel numbered to 10 is $149.99. A relic parallel numbered to 5 is $249.99. A relic parallel numbered to 1 is $799.99.

Did I mention that the relic is a tablecloth?

RANT MODE ON:

Of all the idiotic, stupid, money grabbing schemes that Topps could think of, this one takes the cake! I understand game used items. It's part of the appeal of getting closer to the game. Uniforms, bats, bases, and dirt. These are all things that either were used in a game or had the potential to be. I can even see stadium seats, since that is an integral part of the game experience and the ambience of the sport. But a tablecloth that was used at the announcement of a signing? What idiot thought this was a good idea? What possible connection does a tablecloth have to the game. If you want to have a connection to a player at a major signing, take the uniform jersey that he was wearing, not the tablecloth. Did someone eat paint chips as a kid? Who the hell thought this was a good idea? They should be suspended. This relic makes me want to have a picnic, not see a baseball game.

RANT MODE OFF:

I'm glad that Manny Machado did not sign with the team I follow. I would not want to feel at all compelled to entertain the thought of purchasing this relic to complete a collection. This is probably one of the stupidest "relics" I have seen. It makes of mockery of the entire relic system. The only reason for these cards is a quick cash grab. I'm not going to judge if you want one of these cards. That is your personal preference. I just don't see a reason for it.

I'm all about living in the moment. I love the idea of Topps Now. This is a monstrosity. A travesty. A disgrace to card collecting. Those are just my thoughts, though.

the devil in dan mcginn

for the record, i am a fan of the 2015 topps buybacks.  i like the stamp that was added to the cards much more than the 75th anniversary stamp that was on 2014 topps buybacks, and much more than the multi-colored 65th anniversary stamps that were on 2016 topps buybacks.  i have purchased many lots and singles of the 2015 buybacks in an effort to acquire as many dodgers as i can.

sometimes there are other gems in those lots, such as this 1971 topps dan mcginn card

a close-up of the stamp

shows that the beard and horns - classic devilry doodling - were applied to the card prior to it achieving buyback status.

what might have possessed a person, assumedly a youth, to disfigure this card to such a degree?  here, for the record, is the back of the card, which features a clean-shaven mcginn, unaltered by dastardly sketching.

mcginn didn't pitch in the big leagues in 1971 until june, so perhaps the owner of the card was disappointed to open a first series pack and get a guy who wasn't on a major league roster at the time.  or, perhaps this fan was listening to a game in which mcginn pitched poorly, of which there were several during the 1971 season.  my guess is that the card's owner figured out that mcginn's presence in a game was a curse against the expos, as the team lost 25 of the 28 games in which mcginn appeared during the 1971 season, including the last 22.  

regardless of the reason, i envy the person who opened a pack of cards in 2015 and found this card.

A Homemade Shadow Box Card

I was flipping through the card boxes at Uncommon Sportscards and some of the cards are in those unbelievably huge screw down cases that would often hold 1990's junk wax.  As I flipped it over I was a little confused but the plot thickened.

I didn't remember Wilson Alverez having one of those cards like Rickey Henderson's 1991 Upper Deck card which showed Rickey in motion on a single non-3D card.

Instead upon closer inspection it turns out someone had three copies of the Alverez card and decided to make their very own shadow box cards.  Each version of Wilson seems to be delicately cut out and glued on top of one another.

Here's a close up on three Wilson faces on top of each other:

And here's the card's reverse side which was unaltered.

In the end, I delicately placed this masterpiece back into the box after photographing it and so you can sort through the many boxes at Uncommon Sportscards in the Twin Cities it can be yours!

Tony Micelli 1982 Fleer Mock Up

When I ran across this picture of actor Tony Danza, I suddenly remembered that his character on Who's The Boss was an ex-ballplayer. This is what I get for doing homework in front of the television as a child. Random pop culture facts speed to the front of my thoughts as if the synapses cannot be bothered with trivial things like pin numbers and passwords. Nope. Tiny little details from eighties sitcoms are much more important than those.

Basing this card on the timeline of the show (although the sitcom never actually specifies any date), Tony played with the St. Louis Cardinals at second base until a shoulder injury forced early retirement. The show started in the fall of 1984. September 20, 1984 to be exact. I figured two years would be a plausible enough amount of time from injury to rehab to retirement to searching for a better life for his daughter by looking in the want ads for live-in housekeeper in a more upscale environment than Brooklyn. It sounds about right to me, at least.

This photo screamed 1982 Fleer, so that became my focus. The odd angle, weird positioning and lens flare really captured the top notch photography that marred the early Fleer sets. The out of place coloring on the "uniform" seems about right for the sometimes spotty photos from these sets too.

Cross-post: White Sox...Baseball Cards???

This is a cross-post from my new blog, Chipp' 'n' Dale http://thehomeofthebraves.blogspot.com/.

It was originally posted 5/11/12. 

Signed the little brother up for the (free) Chicago White Sox Kids Club for this year. I think I sent in the request in February or sometime then. Just yestiddy, though, we received a packet in the mail from the Sox. When asked if he wanted the swag, my brother gave a conclusive "no." It had some interesting things, actually, like this Paul Konerko "Fathead" sticker thing. The Sox logo and kids club logo are also stickers.

A membership certificate "signed" by Southpaw, the White Sox mascot...

Some ticket vouchers for nosebleed seats at a White Sox home game, and a "Take a stand against Bullying" postcard....

Oh yeah, and some eyeblack stickers. Don't wear those for NCAA Football, though, kids!

A flyer for the White Sox and Bulls Summer Camps, aka "Jerry Reinsdorf Little League pro day."

But here's the real goody. A White Sox sticker page! Think 2012 Topps stickers, but a team issued set of players! (They're small in comparison to cards, too.) And check out the design!



VS.

1987 Donruss, anyone?! The design used for the stickers is actually a nice spin-off, I think. Sharp team colors, and a conspicuous absence of that 1980's look of red, white, and...navy? Cool stuff.

So that's that. Wouldn't find this in a fan pack! Definitely some cool stuff, and hey, who would've known there's a throwback team set that's not from a Topps year design?

HE'S BURNING BASEBALL CARDS!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n0lJ3LNslY

This makes me kind of sad, especially since this is one junk wax set I'm trying to collect...

From this guy's "About" page:

"To increase collector’s interest and long term value from the overproduced era these cards need to become scarcer. To reduce the number of cards in circulation, large volumes of these cards simply need to be destroyed. Starting now, I am taking action to reduce the number of 1987 Topps Baseball cards in circulation...To reduce the numbers I will be destroying 1987 Topps Baseball cards every week...in my fireplace. All 1987 Topps Baseball cards I acquire will be destroyed. This includes All Stars, Rookies, and even Graded Cards. To be clear — no 1987 Topps Baseball card is safe."

AAAAA!!!!!

I couldn't do that to innocent overproduced Topps cards...Maybe this guy is just braver than me...or more foolish!

Whoa.

Went to my (relatively) local card shop a day or two ago, Champ Sportscards in Huntsville, Alabama. The store was great, and the shop owner, Brooks, was friendly as I asked him some general questions about his shop and business.


One of the things I thought was awesome about the store was that there was a box full of 1961 Topps and 1962 Post (previously reviewed here). The 1962 Post set was really cool to me, especially. Ended up with these two cards from that box that included Orlando Cepeda and Maury Wills...

Harvey Haddix card. If you're a real baseball fan, you know his story. (I actually managed to squeeze this card into a penny sleeve, not so with this next card.)As soon as I saw this one, I had to have it, forgoing the one with a Giants player with a rip across his face. The (hopefully) kid that did this back in 1962 gave Ron Hansen a ski-mask-looking thing over his face, and a "beany." Ron is exhorting us to look at his "cop." I assume that by "BALLS" the kid was referring to Hansen's eyeballs. That's just a guess, though. [the middle bubble reads, "Tweet," referring to Hansen's status as an Oriole] The corners are horrendously worn, making my efforts to put this in a penny sleeve hopeless. The card is also heavily creased, as you may be able to tell.

However, this was a terrific card, and the Haddix balanced out the eccentricity of my purchase. The total price for both these?

Three dollars. (By the way, I also snagged a Curt Schilling Donruss RC, Brandon Hicks 2010 Chrome RC, a Glavine, and a Cardinal-jerseyed Smoltz for $2. Total.)

I love this hobby.

1990 Upper Deck Baseball stickers

May it first be noted that this, being the fifth post of 2012 on TDTC, marks the passage of lasts year's post mark of four! Progress! Here, now is Upper Deck's 22 year old foray into team stickers. Shiinneee...These actually scanned surprisingly well, considering how hard it is to see them. Best I can tell, these were inserted one per pack of 1990 Upper Deck.

A Pirates sticker here-Each sticker is a little bit like "A history of MLB logos". Pirates fans, did that particular scalawag have any sort of nickname/existence as a team mascot? Jess wonderin'...

St. Louis Cardinals sticker. The back of the sticker is a blank white back. Yawn...I actually have a nice stack of these hologram stickers-maybe I could use them as trade package throw-ins. Unfortunately I do not have the Braves version of this sticker-anyone care to help me out there?

This card is sorta creepy. Apparently Chief Wahoo has gone...3-D! Considering this was 1990, this is like, bangin', cutting-edge technology! Amazing! (Looking back, Mr. Cardinal seems to have this 3-D form too. Cool, I guess. (Picture 1990 kid pulling Mr. Wahoo here: "Buzz Hype, yo! Man, that is clean!!!")

Last, I post a Cubs card. I posted this mostly because I have like 5 of them I don't really care for. (Picture afore-mentioned 1990 kid: "I have like, five of these Cubs hologrammies. Buzz kill, man!)Any diehard Cubs fans want these? (I know you're out there.)

So there you have it. 1990 Upper Deck hologram stickers! I frankly have no idea what a kid in 1990 would have done with these. They're not by any means something you stick on your car bumper (though that would look awesome to have the entire back of your car a giant hologram, ...right?) They're just...shiny. Huh. Well, anyway, 1990 UD holograms, everybody! (Let's bounce on outta heah, ya'll!)

Spring Training Is Here!

Quite a few baseball cards depict players in spring training. This is for two reasons: First,

it is easier for photographers to get close to the players when they are playing meaningless games than when they are, and also to get shots of players in new uniforms (See 2008 Tampa Bay Rays Upper Deck cards) or posed shots for various sets. The alternative for this second reason is airbrushing, which is a whole 'nother story.

Along with this rather random Trot Nixon card, here is an interesting poem I came across that seemed appropriate for today.

William Carlos Williams, "At the Ball Game" (from Spring and All)

At the Ball Game

The crowd at the ball game

is moved uniformly

by a spirit of uselessness

which delights them--

all the exciting detail

of the chase

and the escape, the error

the flash of genius--

all to no end save beauty

the eternal--

So in detail they, the crowd,

are beautiful

for this

to be warned against

saluted and defied--

It is alive, venomous

it smiles grimly

its words cut--

The flashy female with her

mother, gets it--

The Jew gets it straight--it

is deadly, terrifying--

It is the Inquisition, the

Revolution

It is beauty itself

that lives

day by day in them

idly--

This is

the power of their faces

It is summer, it is the solstice

the crowd is

cheering, the crowd is laughing

in detail

permanently, seriously

without thought

We're underway with the 2012 baseball season everyone! Go Braves!

A Quandary, A Dilemma, A Bind

I was going through some junk wax today and saw some old acquaintaces, some 2010 Topps Million Card Giveaway cards.This was before I was as connected with bloggers who use these codes, as I am now, and sadly these cards were useless to me or anyone else and then expired. Surely they have some purpose?

Hmmm...Let's experiment with this here card. This is a 2010 MCG card of Ichiro Suzuki. Incidentally, my good friend Wikipedia tells me that Ichiro's manager in 1994 was the one who convinced him to put "Ichiro" of the back of his jersey, instead of "Suzuki." Apparently it was part of some marketing deal. I dunno, it kind of annoys me that on all his cards he is referred to as "Ichiro." I mean, Albert Pujols has both names on his card. Should he have just his last name on there (or first?) Hm. (Does Ron Artest have "Metta World Peace on his basketball cards? By the way, I always read "Metta World Peace" with a deep voice.)

Using the awesome power of my (other) good friend scissors, I lopped and cropped Ichiro out of his tilted posture to this:

I know what you're thinking-I lopped the bottom part off. I didn't; it just scanned funny. It actually has "ked is not" slanted across the bottom, which is awesome.

In conclusion, I really don't know what to do with these. Still. What I'll probably end up doing with them is using them for 'dummy' support cards in trade packages...or something. I'll try to avoid cutting them up anymore. No promises though.

What about you-any similar situations like this?