Return to 80s Week - Topps trio

In November 2020 I ran my first "80s week". In the spirit of 80s movie sequels, here is the Return to 80s Week! Our week kicks off with some Topps cards. 

Card Number 881: Topps Baseball Champion Superstars, 1986; #13

This photo is from the same overly-lit photo-shoot that featured on Topps's Glossy All-Star Card in 1986. This card was sold in a complete set of 33 cards of "Baseball Champion Superstars", which sounds like one of those multiple word team names in pastiches of Japanese manga.

The back is a minimum effort job, even by Topps' standards.

I've seen stickers with better backs than this.

Card Number 882: Topps League Leaders Minis, 1988; #74

This card has a rare photo of Tony bare-headed. This is such an odd photo. Is he trudging back to the dug-out having failed to get on base?

The back is colourful with a little photo of Tony. He was the league leader for both batting average and hits in 1987, but only 4th in runs. Seems like he got marooned on base more often than some other players then. 

Card Number 883: Topps Big, 1989; #58

These cards are anoying because they don't fit in my binders. I mean, I could ram them in if I really wanted to have them in there. But it's not ideal. 

The front is a nice combo of action photos and close up. 

On the back we get cartoons. Is that chap with the letter meant to be Tony? Or the chap passing the basketball? Because, er, there's a slight tonal dissimilarity between those cartoon people and Tony.

Because this is such a big card, there is room for some fielding stats as well. Always a bonus!

Total: 883 cards

Miniaturised classic card designs

A few card companies have produced smaller sized baseball cards. These are often referred to as 'Minis'. But Fleer went fancy with their titles and called their smaller cards 'Classic Miniatures'. (Oooh, there's posh!)

Card Number 782: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1986; #69

This 120-card set was sold as a complete box set. The design uses the same frame and colour scheme as the regular-sized flagship set. They use a different photo though.

The cardback has the same lay-out as the flagship set, including the factoids. 

That franchise record for a hitting streak didn't last long. Benito Santiago beat it in his debut season in 1987, when he recorded a hit in 34 consecutive games. 

Card Number 783: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1987; #50

Again, this smaller card copies the design template of the flagship set. The photo is unusual because there are very few cards that show Tony without a helmet or a cap on. 

The cardback is the same as the flagship set, complete with a 'hitting guide' compiled by "pro scouts". (Or so they claimed.)

Still, it's a neat little graphic to see on a neat little card.

Total: 783 cards

Gawain got me some Ginter

A little padded envelope arrived on the weekend from Gawain. It was a set of this year's Padres cards in the Allen & Ginter retro range. Tony had a base card in the set and Gawain dropped in a bonus as well.

Card Number 713: Topps Allen & Ginter, 2021; #53

I doubt it's deliberate but the pink outline around the picture make it look a bit like Tony is trapped in a giant bubblegum bubble, particularly the wispy bits on the top and bottom. 

I like the look of this card, even though the designer has clearly used the art filter to re-render the photo that Topps used on last year's Topps short print card. 

It was also on the back of this year's card in the Stadium Club range.

They obviously like this photo.

The back is, well, it's what Topps do with Allen & Ginter cards. It's tedious but they've been doing it for so long they aren't going to change.

The bonus card that Gawain generously added in was the mini parallel!

Card Number 714: Topps Allen & Ginter Mini, 2021; #53

Smaller card. Smaller bubblegum bubble effect.

The cardback is just a scaled down version of what appears on the regular card. There are lots of different parallel versions of this card with different cardbacks that sort of replicate cigarette cardbacks of yore (except without any references to cigarettes).

The big news in the baseball card world this week is that Topps are likely to lose their exclusive monopoly to produce cards, with both the Player's Association and MLB signing deals with another company. While I have said for a while that I don't think the monopoly position was particularly helpful to the hobby as it meant Topps weren't being pushed to keep things fresh, I don't think the solution is to have a different company enjoying a monopoly position. 

And the big news in my blogging world this week is that a large selection of cards might be incoming which will keep me posting well past the end of the baseball season and probably into next year! Until then, stay safe everyone and thank you for reading.

Total: 714 cards

Much travelled minis

Back in November (I think), my friend Gawain bought a job lot of cards for me on eBay and sent them to his US shipping address. It was one of those lots that cost pennies in the USA but shipping it over would have cost a fortune in fees. And so they sat in Gawain's mailbox until he had enough stuff there to ship it all to the UK and they arrived last week.

I had actually forgotten all about it until Gawain started sending me photos of the cards.

The cards are mainly oddballs, promo cards and "food issues" - cards that are easy to obtain in America but harder to find over here. Well over half the bundle were new cards to the collection - in fact there were 19 new cards, which feels wonderfully symbolic. That also takes me over another century mark.

I thought I'd start with a couple of odd-sized cards, for fun.

Card Number 686: Topps Major League Leaders, 1987; #35

I am nostalgically fond of the 1987 Topps design with the wooden border, and I'm glad Topps used it on this set of smaller sized cards. The front is very different to Tony's base card in the Topps flagship set because you can actually see his face!

The back looks similar to other Major League Leaders cards. In 1986 Tony had the most hits and tied for the most runs but was only third in batting average.

One other thing I noticed is that the two line stats box has his stats for the previous season and for "life" not "career". I wonder when Topps stopped using "life" in this way.

Card Number 687: Topps Mini, 1989; #36

Another "mini" card - this is listed on Trading Card Database as "Topps UK Mini", but when I blogged about the card from the previous year's set I just called it "Topps Mini".

When I blogged previously about a mini card issued in the UK, I mentioned buying a packet of similar sized NFL cards in a shop while on a school trip in 1986. I didn't realise until much later that Topps had tried to sell baseball cards here in the 1980s as well.

There was a boom in interest in American sports in the 80s - in school we all knew who The Refrigerator was and that he played for the Chicago Bears. I doubt anyone actually watched any NFL. Maybe the Superbowl was on TV back then. If so, it was niche viewing, not the hyped event it is nowadays.

The UK minis rarely appear for sale in the UK Facebook groups. In fact, I have only ever found them for sale 'in the wild' once - at a collector's fair with lots of cigarette card sellers and stamp dealers. If this was sourced in the UK originally, then it has crossed the Atlantic twice!

On the back of this much-travelled card, there is a panel explaining baseball terms - I think these would have been quite helpful for UK consumers back in the 80s.

There is also a cartoon, of a teacher at a blackboard to illustrate the 'school' that Tony part-owned. I think Fuji, who is an educator, might like this!

Total: 687 cards

There's that photo again

Last week Glenn from Glasgow sent me a photo of a card asking if I had it. The answer was 'no' although the photo on the card is one that is becoming more familiar. In fact, I blogged a card that uses the same photo last week, and a different card that used it a fortnight ago! Glenn kindly sent it to me and here it is:

Card Number 638: Topps Minis, 2014; #TM-4

This card was part of a 100-card insert set of die-cut minis that reused the Topps template from 1989. I've always liked that card design.

Yes, that is the same photo that was used in the Gypsy Queen set in 2014 and in an insert series in the Topps Update set in 2019 and again in Topps Update in 2020.

There's reusing photos and there's reusing photos. 

The cardback on this is great though, with a tip-top factoid about Tony's dual sporting Collegiate career, on a pink background like the cards from Topps 1989 set.

So, there are a lot of plus points to this card to counterbalance Topps reusing the same photo: the 1989 swoosh design, the great cardback factoid, being a die-cut card, even the coloured edging around the border. 

And I suppose it does fit in my developing gallery of cards that use this photo. I am up to five now!

When I messaged Glenn to tell him the card had arrived we started chatting about photo reuse, and he sent me a picture of some of his vintage Tigers cards, showing how Topps had been doing this since the 60s. At least they have been consistent in their practice for a long time!

Total: 638 cards

League Leader with a swoosh

I got chatting to Jason after he posted a picture of his set of Project 2020 Tony Gwynn cards in the UK Facebook Group. They looked really nice together and I have a tinge of envy. The envy is mixed with gratitude, though, because Jason sent me a picture of some of his duplicate Tony Gwynn cards and asked if I needed any. I did, and shortly afterwards an envelope arrived with some cards in. (It actually arrived the day after the cards from Dean arrived so I had consecutive days with baseball cards in the post. Happy days!)

Back in the 1980s Topps had other ranges besides their flagship, including smaller sized cards depicting 'league leaders'. I've already blogged about Tony's card in their range from 1986. 

Card Number 581: Topps Major League Leaders,1989; #39

The front of the card is recognisably from 1989 because it has that 'swoosh' effect for Tony's name, the same as his base card that year, which looks like this: 

The swoosh is also on the 'accidental appearance' Tony made in the 1989 set when he was almost taking out Al Pedrique on the Pirates Leaders card.

I'm a fan of the swoosh effect and the 1989 Topps lay-out generally. When it comes to late 80s Topps designs, I'm definitely keener on the card sets released in odd numbered years - 85, 87, 89.

The card is a bit smaller than a regular flagship card, though. Here they are next-to-next to show what I mean.

The back is a lovely bright yellow, with a colour headshot photo of Tony. This is a much better cardback than Topps normally produced. 

While he was the batting champion in 1988, he ranked lower in on base percentage and didn't record as many hits as might be expected. He was ranked joint tenth overall. Partly that was down to injury during the 1988 season.

In 1989 these cards were sold in packs of 7 for 30 cents a pack. There were 77 cards in the set, with a few players from each team. Although it doesn't seem the cards are particularly rare, they don't turn up as often as might be expected in sale lots so I was very pleased to have the opportunity to obtain this card.

Total: 581 cards

Tuesday Twins - shiny Allen & Ginter

Like they did with Stadium Club, Topps gave their Allen & Ginter range the Chrome treatment at the extreme end of 2020. And like he did with Stadium Club, my friend Gawain opened a few boxes and along the way found me some Tony Gwynn cards!

These work as 'twins' in two different ways. They are the same as each other and the same designs as the regular Allen & Ginter non-chrome release.

Card Number 571: Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome, 2020; #128

Although this is the same card as the base range, the Chrome effect makes it look a lot more impressive. (Judge for yourself by comparing with the original version I blogged about two months ago.)

The cardback is exactly the same as the regular Allen & Ginter release. As ever, I feel it's a bit pretentious writing out the numbers as words.

As in the regular release, all the base cards were produced as 'mini' versions as well. And one tipped up in Gawain's ripping adventure.

Card Number 572: Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome (Mini), 2020; #128

This also looks a lot more impressive as a Chrome card than the regular release. The picture has been cropped but is exactly the same image as the normal-sized card.

The back is the regular cardback shrunk to fit. However, the version of this I own from the regular release has a parallel "A&G" cardback, so this cardback is different to the one I had previously.

Even though there is nothing particularly new about this release, these are very nice cards, and are an improvement on the normal set. I'm very grateful to Gawain for putting these to one side for me as he was opening the cards. I already owe him several beers and one day, when we are allowed to meet up on the other side of this pandemic, I think I owe him yet another one!

Total: 572 cards

Mini Monday

Back in 2011 Topps included Kimball Champions cards as inserts in their flagship products, based on cigarette cards produced by William Kimball & Co. in the 19th Century. Unlike Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen which are also tobacco brands revived by Topps, Kimball never made the jump to become a full set in its own right. 

This card arrived in the eBay lot that was misdelivered after I'd paid an 'administration fee' for the privilege of paying customs charges. I'm still a bit irked about that.

Card Number 554: Topps Kimball Champions, 2011; #KC-59

The front is illustrated rather than a photo. The bottom half of the picture makes it look like Tony is playing in a park somewhere.

The illustration is based on a photo of Tony taken in the early part of his career. The brown cap and jacket help to date the photo, as does his fine moustache.

All the cardbacks contained a checklist for the relevant section they were in. Cards 51-100 featured retired players and legends of the game. It's a dull cardback even by fake cigarette card standards. 

This is only the second card from 2011 that I've featured on the blog so far. 2011 was a comparatively lean year for Tony Gwynn cards - with just 182 cards listed on the Trading Card Database. 

Total: 554 cards

Modern Monday: back to Allen & Ginter (and an A&G back)

One of the first posts on this blog was about two Allen & Ginter inserts, and last month I blogged about a couple of base cards from earlier in the decade. In the last couple of weeks some more up-to-date base have come through the post, so here are the base cards from the last couple of years, and a bonus.

Card Number 468: Topps Allen & Ginter, 2019; #77

The front is a nice portrait rendered like a painting, as is the Allen & Ginter style. This is obviously adapted from a photo taken in 1999 - it's easy to tell because of the prominent 30th anniversary sleeve patch.

The back is the same quirky / tiresome list of statistics with the numbers written out in full.

Card Number 469, Topps Allen & Ginter, 2020; #128

It's harder to date the source photo for this card to a particular season, but I'd guess it's around about 1988, based on the brown jacket and Tony's moustache.

The cardback design is slightly less fussy.

Card Number 470: Topps Allen & Ginter Mini, 2020; #128 (A&G back parallel)

And the bonus card! All Allen & Ginter base cards have a 'mini' parallel that's cigarette card sized. Every pack of Allen & Ginter 2020 had one of these parallels in it. And this is a parallel of a parallel because it has a different cardback - these versions were only available at a rate of one in five packs. 

The front picture is cropped slightly to fit the new card dimensions.

And this is the back with a big A&G logo on. It looks a lot better than the typical list of statistics.

I've commented before about the links with tobacco companies of yore on modern day cards. I don't need to say anything more about that. But this cardback is so much better than the standard ones, I'm not going to criticise Topps again for it. I have noticed that Topps say they are commemorating the picture cards that came out in 1887, rather than saying the tobacco or cigarette cards. If you didn't know Allen & Ginter were once one of the biggest cigarette companies in the world, then you wouldn't have a problem with it.

(And on that historical note, Allen & Ginter was a comparatively progressive company in its own way. They were the first cigarette rolling company to employ women - although that might have been because they could pay women less than men. They were also innovative, the first American company to try and develop mechanised cigarette rolling. If that had been totally successful, they wouldn't have need so many employees, so maybe that's less laudable.)

I'd like to thank Gawain and Andy M for sourcing and sending me these cards - cheers, chaps!

Total: 470 cards

Diamond Kings and Gypsy Queens

This is a post with a 'royal' theme.

Card Number 80: DonRuss Diamond Kings, 1989; #6

Diamond Kings were an insert series in DonRuss cards from the mid-80s onwards. They all feature drawn portraits of top stars in the game at the time. The illustrator of this card was Dick Perez, who drew the Diamond King portraits from 1982 - 1996. There is a gallery on his website.

I'm not a massive fan of these cards, but I can see how they were a bit different in the 1980s compared to what else was out there.

Tony appeared in several of the Diamond Kings sets. This is the only one of his I have from the classic run of DonRuss, so far. I have a few copies as it seems to always feature in joblots  - probably because 1989 was  one of the peak production years for DonRuss during the junk wax explosion.

On the back the write up predicts Tony's plaque will hang in Cooperstown one day. They were right about that, of course. I've seen it myself. This seems like a good place for a gratuitous photo of me with Tony's plaque in the Hall of Fame.

The cardback is also optimistic about an imminent rosy future for the Padres. In fact, it would be almost a decade before the club achieved any success.

Card Number 81: Topps Gypsy Queen, 2015; #164
Gawain from the Baseball Cards UK Facebook group sent me this card. Gypsy Queen is another Topps retro-looking product. I have got a few Padres cards in my collection but as a set it holds zero interest for me. This is from the 2015 series, which is the season after Tony passed away.

There is no mention of Tony's passing on the back of the card. It's a very plain cardback.

Card Number 82: DonRuss Diamond Kings, 2005; #434
This card was sent to me by Rodney. It's from the 'Legends' part of the set.

I really like this card. The illustrator is Dave Kramer. My only quibble was that he could have worked from a picture of Tony at any stage in his career and maybe captured him as a younger man.

The cardback includes a bio of the artist and also shows the number of Diamond Kings appearance for Tony Gwynn up to this point (9).

Card Number 83: Topps Gypsy Queen (mini), 2015; #164
In addition to their regular size cards, Topps reproduce all their cards in a 'mini' size. I say reproduce, they actually have more of Tony visible on this mini card than on the actual card because it includes his foot. I received this very recently from Matt J.

I feel that wall behind him ought to be recognisable as well. However, I'm not googling"ball park walls" to see if I can work out where it is.

The cardback has the same factoid. Topps sometimes play around with their Gypsy Queen cardbacks to produce unnecessary variations. But this is the regular cardback.

I hope you enjoyed these Diamond Kings and Gypsy Queens. If you want to see a more up-to-date Diamond Kings card (from 2018), then have a read of this post from last month.

Total: 83/394

Saturday round up: Cardbacks and coincidences

This may become a habit. Last Saturday I blogged about how I had discovered more about a card I has already blogged about. This week I'm going to do the same and also talk about a second serendipitous tangential addition to the 'collection'.

One of my first posts was about Tony's 1980s Topps cards. I mentioned how in 1988 there was an acknowledgement of scout Cliff Ditto on the back of Tony's card.

This week I've finished reading He Left His Heart in San Diego, an anthology of memories of Tony Gwynn compiled by prolific author Rich Wolfe. On page 142, one-time Padres manager Jack McKeon is quoted thus:

"About the middle of November... Sy Berger from Topps Baseball Cards called me. He said, "Jack, I've got a problem... I've got four or five scouts claiming Tony Gwynn." I laughed and said "Let me go through the scouting files and see which guy should be credited." I went through the scouting files and there was one report on Tony Gwynn. That was from Cliff Ditto out of the Los Angeles area. That was the only scouting report we had. So I told Sy, "Make them all feel good. Give them all a certificate or whatever they need." They all claimed Tony Gwynn but we had only one report."

There are some learning points from this.
1) Always submit your reports!
2) Other people will try and claim your successes. Which is why point 1 is important.
3) For all that I bust on Topps for their bizarre choices of cardback factoids, they actually did some diligent digging to make sure they were right.
4) Cliff Ditto has risen even higher in my estimation because it seems he was the only scout who actually spotted Tony.

And on to the Saturday Serendipity. A couple of weeks back Jack contacted me via one of the Facebook groups for UK baseball card collectors to show me a couple of Tony Gwynn cards he had, including this one.

Card Number 60: Topps Mini, 1986; #65 (League Leaders)

As you can guess, I didn't have this card but I do now thanks to Jack. The back is unremarkable but is a nice shade of pink.

Anyway, that's not the serendipity. Jack said he was happy to sell this and the other card of Tony's or he would trade. He collects Derek Jeter. So I took a photo of four Jeter cards I had accumulated and asked if there were any he wanted. Turns out he wanted all four, so I asked if he had any other Padres cards and I'd just pick two extra and we would swap four cards for four cards.

Jack showed me his binder pages of Padres and one card leapt out at me. It was a Topps 1984 card. Somehow I have accumulated plenty of Padres 1983 cards and 1985 cards, but I had exactly zero 1984 cards in my binder. So I said I'd take that one and another card as well (which may make an appearance on this blog in a future post.

Anyway, the 1984 card was #224, pitcher Sid Monge. This almost a quintessential example of what a real baseball card looks like.

The back is centred poorly. This makes it almost a quintessential example of what the back of a real Topps baseball card from the 80s looks like. (As an aside, I love that Friar logo.)

A few hours after we agreed the trade I got another message from Jack. "I take it you knew this," he said with a screengrab of Sid Monge's Wikipedia entry with the following line highlighted:

"Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres got his first hit off Monge on July 19, 1982 while he was pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies."

My first reaction was "WHAT!?!?" I wish now I'd played it cool and said, "Yes, of course I knew that. Why else would I have selected that card?" But, really there's no point lying to a fellow collector (who I discovered lives not very far away from where I grew up), especially when a fellow collector is not only helping you out with cards for your collection, but is also going off and doing your research for you! That's going above and beyond, isn't it.

So, there you go. My first 1984 Padre, traded as an add on in a deal, turns out to have an important connection with Tony Gwynn. Being totally truthful I doubt I would have done any research on him at all, just happily filed him away in my Padres binder full of Topps cards. So a massive thanks to Jack for giving me a reason to include Sid's card on this blog.

Total: 60/394