Modern Monday - crowned a Diamond King again

Another 2022 release, this time from Ryan in the UK collectors group on Facebook. Cheers, Ryan!

Card Number 1027: Panini Diamond Kings, 2022; #12

The painted effect on the card is pretty standard fare from Diamond Kings, with less blue in the design than last year.  

The back is a bit dull, but it has a baseball diamond in the background. Nice touch!

There's a quote from Tony on the back with a nugget of wisdom for aspiring hitters. I'm not convinced it's actually helpful!

Panini's use of these zombie brands is under threat from new licensing deals, and it's unlikely Diamond Kings will continue for many more seasons. So enjoy them while you can!

Total: 1027 cards.

2013 oddities courtesy of Glenn

Last week Glenn sent me a little envelope with a couple of oddities from 2013. That year is right in the lull caused by the Topps monopoly squeezing other card companies out of the baseball market at the end of the noughties, and the recent resurgence in baseball card popularity that started in about 2019. There aren't many Tony Gwynn cards from that period so I was surprised when Glenn sent me pictures of two cards I didn't yet have from the same year. 

Card Number 914: Topps Archives 1969 mini-stickers, 2013; #69S-GBRS

The card number is weird. 69S stands for 1969 sticker, because they replicate the 1969 Topps card design. Tony is the G in GBRS. He shares this card-sized sticker sheet with Wade Boggs (B), Cal Ripken Jr (R) and Ryne Sandberg (S).

Tony easily has the best photo on the front. Wade looks annoyed. Cal looks sleepy. Ryne looks tense and confused.

The photo of Tony seems to come from the photo-shoot that yielded pictures used on his Topps glossy all-star card in 1986 and the Baseball Champions Superstar sticker in the same year. The guy in the yellow shirt behind him seems to have a large number 18 on his back. That's not a contemporary Padres shirt as far as I can tell, so I have no idea who that guy is.

The back is dull, even for a sticker back. 

Card Number 915: Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Chips, 2013; #unnumbered

This is the first round 'card' in my collection. It's unnumbered, but there are 165 listed on Trading Card Database.

The photo of Tony isn't the most flattering. He looks to me like he is trying to suppress a laugh.

This is from Panini's 'Cooperstown' range that they issued through an agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's the range that had a card that just featured Tony's spikes. 

In 2013 Panini were feeling their way into the unlicensed card market, wary of triggering a lawsuit from the aggressively protective Topps, and also trying to hit on a formula for cards that people would want. This set was issued the year before Panini resurrected the DonRuss brand when they were also still trying to get the Prizm brand right. So this round card was part of a process where Panini threw a lot of things at the wall and hoped something would stick.

Despite being a retro-tastic tribute to gum cards issued a century before, these inserts were a one shot that they didn't try repeating in the following year's Cooperstown set.

The Cooperstown set of 2013 is noteworthy in that it had autographed inserts, including cards autographed by Tony. Those would have been some of the last cards that he signed before his untimely death. One day I might be lucky enough to add one to the collection.

A big thank you to Glenn for checking whether I had these weird cards. Much appreciated, Glenn!

Total: 915 cards

Modern Monday - shiny Donruss

Card number 837: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #2

I've already blogged about four fifths of this shiny little insert set. The fifth and final shiny card is about Tony's induction in the Hall of Fame.

This is the first of these cards that I have scanned using the overhead scanner, which properly captures it's sheer shininess!

If you've ever watched the video of Tony getting the call to say he was in the Hall of Fame, you can see how much it meant to him, and how nervous he was. According to He Left His Heart in San Diego, Tony thought he might not have done enough in his career to get elected. He is quite obviously overcome by emotion when he actually takes the call.

Card Number 838: DonRuss Optic, 2017; #164

'Optic' is the Panini-era DonRuss version of Chrome. Although this comes as a standalone set, it's basically the same cards as the regular DonRuss set with a shiny coating. 

There is also an Optic logo on the front and a different card number on the back. They chose an interesting vignette from Tony's career for the factoid. 

Tony had a good season in 1994. In addition to his post-war record batting average, he also nabbed the winning run in the All-Star Game. It was the first time the National League won the game after six defeats on a row. You can watch Tony's game-winning slide on YouTube - it starts at 4 minutes, 52 seconds on this video!

Panini get a bit of stick for their unlicensed baseball cards issued under various 'zombie brands', but their cards are a decent level of quality and their attention to detail in terms of factoids is very good as well. It's nice to read about something a bit different on a cardback!

Total: 838 cards

Collecting intersect - Panini Stickers

Before I collected baseball cards, I collected football stickers. By football, I mean soccer. I still have the first Panini sticker album - Football '85 - that I filled, in partnership with my little brother. It's quite tatty now, but it is 36 years old! In 1986 we completed the Fifa World Cup sticker album by Panini. We didn't collect the regular football stickers in 1986 or 1987, although I do have incomplete albums that I acquired off friends. 

Then in 1988, my brother and I collected the Football '88 stickers. They had bright yellow borders, in one of Panini's more exciting design templates. Those football albums by Panini in the mid-80s were the pinnacle of sticker collecting in my opinion. In addition to all the first division clubs, the albums included the second division teams and club badges, the teams in the Scottish Premier Division, and additional features. 

In Football 88 one bonus spread focussed on the celebrations of the Football League's centenary season. There was also a page of 'Second Division Heroes' with a few players from the second division clubs featured. Unfortunately, none of the players from the team my family supported, Shrewsbury Town, made the cut for that feature.

I had, of course, had my first encounter with baseball cards in 1987 (which I recorded in my diary!). But it was those Panini football stickers that started me off collecting this sort of thing. 

What I didn't know, however, was that Panini had produced baseball stickers in the 80s as well. It was a real surprise when I went carefully through the parcel that Richard sent me to find two stickers. And as I picked them up all those memories of collecting football stickers in my childhood came flooding back. 

Card Number 784: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #410

As with the football stickers, each team in Baseball '88 had a double page spread in the album with 12 player stickers, two stickers that made up a 'league leaders' image, a foil sticker of the team logo and another foil sticker depicting the uniform. 

The back is very plain. These were going in an album and the peeled backs would be going in the bin, so there was no point printing anything on them.

Tony isn't pictured on the Padres 'league leaders' stickers. But later on in the book were some action shots of various players in a 'Highlights' spread.

Card Number 785: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #437

It's not the most exciting photo, really. Although, there is a TV camera on a tripod in the background, which is a bit more interesting than the usual empty bench. 

The back is plain again. 

One day, maybe, I will pick up a Baseball '88 album and see what these stickers would look like if they had ever been stuck. Until then, I'm happy just reminiscing about my childhood collecting. 

Total: 785 cards

Modern Monday - green border zombie

2018 is three years ago now, but nothing screams 'modern baseball card' more loudly than a parallel produced by Panini.

Card Number 774: Donruss, 2018 (Green Border Parallel); #165

Shiny green foil around the outside of this card differentiates it from the regular base cards, or the Optic version (which are all in this 'Triple Tuesday'post from May 2020!) It's also not the first green parallel card from 2018 DonRuss to feature on the blog. Here is a green parallel retro card. These green parallels were exclusive to blaster boxes, but only 110 cards in the set were also issued as green parallels. Tony was on two of them.

There is no indication this is a parallel on the cardback.

I refer to these DonRuss cards as "zombie cards" because Panini keep the brands alive in an unlicensed limbo. This cardback in particular is a masterclass in describing events without using any proprietary franchise names or trademarks of Major League Baseball. 

Total: 774 cards

Modern Monday - colourful "DonRuss"

I've put DonRuss in scare quotes in the title, because this is Panini zombie brand DonRuss not actual DonRuss from back in the day. 

These cards were in the box from YoRicha that arrived at the end of last week.

Card Number 747: DonRuss 2020 Holo Orange Parallel; #218

Panini are unmatched in their commitment to parallels, and this is one of the colour variations available for the retro-looking insert series in last years DonRuss set that revived the classic design from 1986. (Blogged in June 2020!)

It's shiny. I like the design. You can barely tell it's unlicensed. 

The back is the same as the regular release and also looks quite retro. 

Card Number 748: DonRuss 2020 Holo Pink Parallel Name Variation; #218

And Panini unleashed a new level of parallel hell, by also making colour parallels of their name variation parallels. So, this is a parallel of a parallel. In shiny pink.

He is Anthony, not Tony on this one.

The back is marked as a parallel by the black baseball with the number in. Personally, I prefer that look for a card number. Also, it helps to distinguish it as a parallel. 

I realised halfway through this post that I should have used card number 747 for a "jumbo" card. But that wouldn't have fitted in with the Modern Monday theme. There's only so much co-ordination I can do with the numbering!

Total: 748 cards

Modern Monday - Carolina Blue and a hallowed number of parallels

Breaking up the goodies that were in the parcel from France, Gawain messaged me the other day with a photo of a card he had picked up in a joblot and asked me if I had one of them yet. The answer was no, so he sent it to me. (Thank you, Gawain!)

Card Number 726: Panini Carolina Blue Prizm, 2021; #225

This card is insanely shiny and scans like an insanely shiny card does.

The base version of this card is a normal shiny silver colour. But Prizm cards are all about the parallels. I thought this was a Blue Prizm, but those are just one shade of blue. Then I found the Carolina Blue Prizms and there was the match!

Not only are there multiple different versions of blue Prizm cards, there are multiple different versions of lots of other colours too. There are a grand total of 42 parallels listed for this card, which is simply ridiculous, even though 42 is a pretty special number in baseball. And, of course, it's also the meaning to life, the universe and everything!

On the back there is a little write-up comparing Tony to other luminaries of the game and describes his "contact numbers" as "intriguing".

Panini's future in the card industry looks a bit shaky because they produce these cards on a license with the Player's Association, which has now signed an exclusive deal with another company starting in a couple of seasons. In the meantime, I'm sure Panini will be producing a plethora of parallels with every set.

Total: 726 cards

Modern Monday - still a Diamond King

I recently bought a small lot of Padres cards on eBay. It was an assortment of parallels from a number of sets and it included some base cards from the Panini Diamond Kings set released this year. I already had a 2021 Diamond Kings insert featuring Tony, but I didn't have his base card. I do now.

Card Number 708: Panini Diamond Kings, 2021; #30

It's a fairly normal Diamond Kings card front. Nothing too complicated. It has a nice finish on the card front; a sort of matt canvassy effect.

The cardback is a bit plain, with some purple prose in the write up. I grew up in a religious family and am used to the phrase "The Lord giveth; the Lord taketh away". It's amusing to see the same thing said about Tony.

We established last time I reviewed a Diamond Kings card that the characters next to the copyright notice are Chinese. I'm waiting for the day when Tony appears on a card written in one of the Asian languages. Topps have done some Japanese cards before but Tony wasn't included. I'd love to be able to add that to the French and Spanish language cards I've got already.

Total: 708 cards

Modern Monday - The Art of Hitting

I mentioned yesterday how two fellow collectors contacted me on the same day last week to ask if I wanted a Tony Gwynn card they had available. Russell was a bit hesitant in his offer because the card in question was unlicensed. However, that isn't an issue for me, and when an unlicensed card looks as good as this one, who cares about logos?

Card Number 676: Panini Diamond Kings Art of Hitting insert, 2021; #AOH6

There are 10 cards in this insert series. It's especially relevant to Tony who wrote a book called The Art of Hitting. I remember reading a comment that Tony should have called his book the Science of Hitting instead of the Art, because he took a very methodical approach to the game and applied trial and error to everything. However, Ted Williams had already used that title for his book about hitting, which Tony read and re-read multiple times.

Diamond Kings cards are all 'illustrated' in a similar style now and no artist is credited with designs like these. I like the way the image has been replicated on the cards in this insert series, although in this case it does look a little bit like a chorus line. (My wife, Cathy, said "Ooh, he's dancing!" when she saw it.)

The image features on the back as well.

Now I'm known as someone who reads cardbacks and has a passing interest in cardbacks that feature other languages besides English. Have a close look at the copyright notice and it looks like there are some hanzi or kanji letters there.

I would like to know if that is Chinese or Japanese, or neither. I'd be very happy to add that tiny bit of non-English to my list of languages that feature on Tony's baseball cards.

A big thank you to Russell for sending me this card. It takes me up to 6 cards issued in 2021 in my collection.

Total: 676 cards

The beginning of the new era of Diamond Kings

After writing yesterday about how Panini have sort of kept the DonRuss brand going, today's post features cards from the Diamond Kings range. Panini now issue this as a brand in its own right, but "Diamond Kings" started out in the DonRuss base sets of the 1980s. The first 26 cards in the DonRuss flagship sets were illustrated portraits of baseball stars - one from each team. I have previously blogged several of these that feature Tony.

When Panini were trying to find a winning formula for their unlicensed baseball cards, they gave the Pinnacle brand a go in 2013, but that seemed to fall a bit flat. Panini released cards under the DonRuss brand in 2014 and that must have worked well enough for Panini to continue releasing "DonRuss" cards. In 2015, they built on the cachet of DonRuss and launched Diamond Kings as a standalone set. It has been released every year since.

Card Number 646: Panini Diamond Kings, 2015; #133

This is from the first year of the Diamond Kings. There isn't an artist credited with this picture, so I imagine it's been done by a Panini staff designer using photoshop rather than creating art from scratch.

The back has a great entry for my collection of descriptions off cardbacks: "San Diego's beloved batting wizard."

The uncredited broadcaster quoted on the back as saying that Tony "could hit .320 with a broom" is Sean Salisbury, the former NFL quarterback turned journalist who was working for Yahoo Sports at the time of Tony's death. (He is quoted in this article on the NBC San Diego website.) It seems strange that the cardback compiler would use the quote with such a vague accreditation. 

Like Gwynn, Sean Salisbury was born in Long Beach, although he grew up in Escondido near San Diego. He is three years younger than Tony, having been born in 1963, and played for the San Diego Chargers among other teams. His career would have overlapped with Tony's quite a bit and he obviously knew Tony as in the rest of that quote he says Tony made an impact on his family. 

Another interesting fact about Sean Salisbury is that he was an advisor on Adam Sandler's remake of the movie Mean Machine, and taught Sandler what he needed to do to portray a quarterback. However, despite all that, Sean missed out his chance to have his name appear on the back of this baseball card, which would have added to the very small number of trading cards he appeared on during his career. Trading Card Database only lists 37 cards for him.

Card Number 647: Panini Diamond Kings DK Originals, 2017; #DO-24

What's more fun than an unlicensed base card? An unlicensed insert card.

The portrait photo on this has scary eyes!

There isn't really much to say about this card. It's one of those ones to have in the collection because it's a Tony Gwynn card, rather than because it had any particularly exciting features. 

Tony's scary eyes are on the back too, along with a quote from Tony where he credits Ted Williams with helping him improve his batting. The flowery description is reserved for Ted who is described as "another sweet-swinging Californian." 

Otherwise, this card is almost the pictorial definition of unremarkable. 

Total: 647 cards

The last days of DonRuss

DonRuss is now one of several trading card brands owned and run by the Panini corporation. I sometimes refer to it as a "zombie brand" because it feels like it's being kept animated but isn't really alive. 

Panini acquired DonRuss in 2009 when they bought Playoff, the company that had salvaged DonRuss as it headed towards collapse at the turn of the millennium and then issued sets in the first decade of the 21st Century. Today's post features cards from the Playoff era of DonRuss's history.

Card Number 644: DonRuss Champions, 2005; #46

There were actually three Tony Gwynn cards in this set, all with slightly different photos on the front.

The card is designed in such a way that it would be easy to insert a relic or an auto into the space on the right. This was a set with lots of relics and autos, with base cards like this filling the gaps. 

There's a great factoid on the back comparing Tony to Ty Cobb. There is also a very interesting stats box with a line of Tony's career highs and his career totals. I don't remember seeing another stats box like that, so it gives this card something unique. 

The big D in an oval is the DonRuss logo during the Playoff era. It's usually a red oval.

Card Number 645: DonRuss Threads Century Stars, 2008; #CS-6

I have blogged a DonRuss Threads base card before. This is rather a bland insert card from the same set. Tony is sticking his tongue out while running in the photo.

For an insert series called Century Stars, there are very few stars on this card. I would have put on more. The stencil font is an unusual choice. I find stencil fonts remind me of two things from my chldhood in the 1980s - the A-Team logo, and the toys called Action Force, which was the last great toyline to be developed in the UK by the toy company Palitoy (as described in this YouTube video by the very knowledgeable Analog Toys). 

The back says it was only fitting that Tony was inducted to the Hall of Fame with Cal Ripken Jr, but then doesn't say why. I know the similarities between the two, and DonRuss clearly expacted everyone who pulled this card to know them too. 

In 2008 Playoff had lost their Major League Baseball licence, and this card claims it was directly licensed by the player depicted. This form of licensing explains the obvious airbrushing on the front. The SD logo is still intact on Tony's helmet, partially obscured by some reflective glare. Weirdly, it only says San Diego on the left hand side of the cardback, but it mentions the Padres by franchise name in the write up on the right hand side. 

This card was from the last year before DonRuss was acquired by Panini. All subsequent cards released with the DonRuss branding have also been unlicensed so this was a portent of things to come.

Total: 645 cards

Unlicensed doesn't mean unloved

Today's post is partly prompted by seeing some graded cards for sale and wondering who is sending cards that are routinely ignored off for grading.

Card Number 643: Panini Prizm, 2013; #176

Panini produce Prizm cards across a number of sports. In baseball where they don't have a licence, the cards end up looking like this, with every hint of a team logo airbrushed off the picture. 

This is the plain base version of these cards. Every base card is shiny, but the main attraction of packs of Prizm cards are multiple colour parallels and refractor-style "prizms" that are often numbered. These silver base cards are used to pad out the packs inbetween the rarer cards. They are basically filler. The sets all look very samey as well - compare this one with the cards from 2014 and 2015.

The back reuses the same airbrushed photo as the front.

The factoid on the back is about Tony's stand-out season in 1987, when he picked up his second batting title and stole lots of bases. 

Apart from the lack of licensing, there's nothing particularly objectionable about this card. But recently I saw a graded version of this base card on a popular auction site with a start price of $50. It was only graded a 9/10 as well. 

I've seen a few discussions about the backlog at the grading houses, and collectors blaming people submitting all kinds of low value cards for grading. I think that happens because the grading houses accept batches of cards for grading so people chuck in extra ones to round out the batch - which, ironically, would make a card like this "filler" twice over. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the thought process is behind sending this card in for grading. 

Although, if you are going to encase your cards in plastic, you may as well pick cards that nobody else will bother getting graded. One of the big measures in graded cards is the 'population', that is, the number of cards graded at a particular level. In the long run maybe this card will be "rarer" than some of the higher value licensed base rookie cards that are getting "slabbed" by lots of people as they come straight out of packs.

Of course, whether anyone will want this card in a graded sleeve so much that they would pay $50 for it is another question. I rather doubt they would. My (ungraded) copy was in a job lot of Tony Gwynn cards, padding out the lot. The previous ones I have acquired have also been part of lots. 

I don't know anybody who collects Panini Prizm baseball cards or is trying to put together a set. There doesn't seem to be much value attached to this filler card - until it's graded, at which point, a collector is essentially paying $50 for a plastic sleeve.

As for my collection, this card sits in a shiny row of three Prizm base cards from consective years in the Panini section of my binder. I won't be sending it off for grading any time soon.

Total: 643 cards

Hometown Hero

Panini products generally get very little love from the collecting community, mainly because they don't have an official MLB license, so can't put team logos on their cards. However, as they have consistently shown with their 'zombie' DonRuss and Diamond Kings ranges, Panini can produce some nice cards. 

Hometown Heroes was a set released in 2013. It is a deliberately retro-feel set printed on thick card stock with an unfinished back.

Card Number 625: Panini Hometown Heroes, 2013; #73

The pennant and starry background make this card look very retro. If I had one criticism it would be that I don't see much point having a set logo including the year of the set if the photo then obscures part of it! Maybe the designer wanted to make sure all the bat was on the card.

The back is bright and colourful. I'd query the wording. Tony might have played all 2,440 games for San Diego, but he didn't play them all in San Diego.

In addition to the 300 base cards in the set, there were some insert series as well.

Card Number 626: Panini Hometown Heroes City Hall insert, 2013; #12

I like this a lot. True, Tony seems to have a bit of a snarl on his face, but overall the impact of this is striking. I'd easily have this on the wall as a poster. Bonus point for having the year in the set logo and having it visible.

The back is equally visually bold. The write up basically says the same thing as on the base card but worded slightly differently. 

Given that Panini put the year in the set name, I surmise they were hoping the set would take off and become an annual release. As it happens, this was a 'one and done' set and never reappeared again. The 'Hometown Heroes' brand has featured in some other Panini releases (National Trasures in 2017 and 2018, and in Chronicles in 2019), but not as a set.

I think that is a bit of a shame, although I can understand why this set failed to make an impact when it came out. Panini were still feeling their way into the baseball card market. They had launched Panini Prizm the previous year, which appealed to the magpies who like shiny parallels. They also tried a Pinnacle relaunch in 2013 that was another one and done. They swapped out the Pinnacle brand for DonRuss in 2014, which managed to stick the landing and is now a key range for them. 

As a retro brand, Hometown Heroes was going up against the licensed cards Topps were releasing in their Archives and Heritage ranges and their Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen sets, and the unlicensed retro cards in Upper Deck's Goodwin's Champions, so there was a lot of competition for a set like this. However, given the crisp design-work, I wish Panini had persevered with Hometown Heroes because these are two really nice cards that still look good eight years later.

Total: 626 cards

One sticker only - a Topps "halfsie"

Ask anyone who grew up in the UK in the 80s who was into soccer, and they probably collected Panini football stickers. The first sticker album my brother and I filled was Football '85. We then completed the Mexico '86 book for the World Cup. Then my mum enforced a break on us. The last book we filled was Football '88. I did have sticker albums for Football '86, Football '87 and Football '89, but didn't complete them.

As an adult I collected and filled the World Cup 2014 and the Euro 2016 sticker albums. It may have been regression, but it was great fun swapping football stickers again.

I didn't realise that Topps did sticker books in the 80s for baseball until I started delving into the depths of Trading Card Database. Also, a little known fact about these "Topps" stickers is that they were actually manufactured by Panini, who had the right equipment for producing them! (Source: BaseballCardpedia)

Hence the link to my childhood football sticker collecting.

This was all triggered by one of the items in the envelope that recently arrived from Tim in Pennsylvania.

"Card" Number 614: Topps Stickers, 1984; #160

These stickers could be stuck in the Baseball Sticker Yearbook that was sold for 25c. 

This sticker really reminds me of Football '85 because in the 80s, the Panini sticker albums had the English First Division with one player per sticker, then the teams and badges of the Second Division, and then at the back the players for the teams in the Scottish Premier Division. But the Scottish player stickers came like this - two stickers on the same sticker back. Although, unlike these, the Scottish stickers got stuck into the album next to each other. 

The nostalgia is almost overwhelming.

Tony is sharing this sticker with "Disco Dan" Ford, who was in the penultimate year of his decade-long Major League career. The Orioles was his final ball club after starting out with the Twins and then playing for the Angels. He was an outfielder like Tony and won the World Series with the Orioles in 1983 - so considering he was an established player and had a World Series ring, it's a bit odd he only got a 'halfsie' sticker. 

On the back it says the sticker was printed in Italy - another clue that this was produced by Panini under a subcontracting agreement. I particularly like the perpendicular baseball bat separating Tony and Dan's names. Another oddity is that the sticker-back suggest you collect the baseball cards, instead of completing your sticker collection. Maybe after they paid Panini for the print run, the stickers were less profitable for Topps, which is why they wanted collectors to buy the baseball cards instead.

Total: 614 cards

All Time Diamond King

Dean sent me this card alongside the Gypsy Queen card I blogged about yesterday. My wife, Cathy, remarked that the combination of green background and Tony's pose made him look more like a golfer.

Card Number 580: Panini All-Time Diamond Kings, 2020; #ATDK-1

Tony was given the first card in this 25-card insert series.

0

It's a very green card, but I like green so I'm not complaining. I can't find any reference to an actual artist on this card, or online, so I'm guessing the 'art' has been done by a Panini staffer.

The back is understated. But it's also turquoise, which is a happy colour and reminiscent of the early 90s. I'm going to add the description of Tony as a "sweet-swinging lefty" to my selection of cardback descriptions. There's a bonus phrase as well - "the San Diego standout".

I know Panini cards aren't to everybody's taste, given they don't carry team logos, but this card isn't bad at all. I now have 3 Diamond Kings cards from 2020 in my collection, and the overall total of cards from 2020 is now 32!

Here are the 3 Diamond Kings cards from 2020 together. They are all regular versions of the insert cards. Parallels exist, but I don't have any. (Yet!)

A big thank you to Dean for sending me this and completing my triptych of Diamond Kings cards.

Total: 580 cards

One Card Only: life without logos

Today's blog post contains opinions. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong in the comments!

Card Number 546: Panini Classics, 2014; #134

Panini have been producing cards without a Major League Baseball license for a number of years now. They have signed contracts with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, so they have access to photos and player likenesses. But they can't include the franchise name or any franchise logos.

And so we get cards like this. But looking at this objectively, there is nothing particularly bad about this card. You can see Tony's name and number on his shirt and as much of his face as is visible in, say, his Topps base card from 1987 or the main photo in his Topps rookie card from 1983. In terms of visible logos it is about parallel with the Topps Stadium Club card from 2020, which was a fully licensed card.

Panini are operating at a disadvantage, but, honestly, with the exception of the word 'Padres' not being included, this card is absolutely fine. It's nicely designed. The cardback is neatly laid out, and includes a factoid that I didn't remember until I read it. The set year is included on the front (bonus point!), and this is actually one of the few cards issued the year that Tony died.

I have mentioned this a few times when reviewing Panini output - they own the DonRuss stable of brands and now produce the Diamond Kings cards as Panini Diamond Kings - but given what the company achieves without a MLB license, it would be very interesting to see what Panini could do if they had a license that meant they didn't have to airbrush batting helmets and shirt sleeves to remove logos.

Only one card company - Topps - holds a MLB license at the moment. I don't think that is particularly good for the hobby. For one thing it limits innovation. Very few major advances in card production have been introduced into the hobby by Topps, and those that have were introduced in reaction to pressure. In fact I'd go as far as saying that being the sole licensee isn't just bad for the hobby, it's also bad for Topps. They don't need to try as hard, and so, let's be real, they don't.

With the exception of the Topps 2020 product this year, and that product is divisive among collectors, there has been little to show that Topps are the dominant card company. Their flagship set was OK, their archives set wasn't bad, but their other sets like Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen are looking tired. Museum, Gallery, Gold Label... they feel like they are treading water. And the decidedly average UK Edition was welcome for being baseball cards released in the UK (hurray!), but has a weaksauce checklist and an England-centric insert set, which I'll be blunt, turned a "United Kingdom" edition into an "England Only" edition. (It's not like Topps don't know Wales exists -  there were two Welsh castles in their Allen & Ginter fortresses subset!)

The Panini Classics card in this post is six years old, and it shows that Panini have known what they are doing for some time now. Despite being at a tremendous disadvantage, they are not as far behind Topps as Topps would like. It may seem counter-intuitive, but maybe the way forward for the Topps company is to relinquish their monopoly on the MLB license and allow other companies to compete on level ground. I think that would help Topps to rediscover the need to innovate and explore new things. There would be risk, but that will keep them sharp. 

It would also be good for the hobby, and what is good for the hobby will also be good for Topps.

In the meantime, if you can bear cards without logos, Panini cards are less expensive to collect, and are often more interesting too. If you collect a player, like I do, then the pictures on the cards are what matter, and they tend to be as good as the pictures that Topps choose anyway. With the archive of DonRuss, Leaf, Score and Pinnacle templates available to them, Panini can match Topps in the nostalgia stakes as well.

And if they produce cards that are as nice in hand as this one, I will be happy to add them to my collection.

Total: 546 cards

Modern Monday - Panini (yes, Panini) Diamond Kings

Since 2009, Panini have owned all the DonRuss-associated brands. I've seen these referenced as "Zombie brands" because they are issued as DonRuss or Leaf or Pinnacle, with a small Panini logo on the back. Panini have issued their own cards as well and this year I noticed they have taken one of the most well-known DonRuss spin-off sub-brands - the Diamond Kings - and branded them as a Panini range. 

So, after almost 40 years of DonRuss Diamond Kings, today's cards are ultra-modern. I present to you two Panini Diamond Kings cards. I'd like to thank Andrew S and Drew O from the UK Facebook collectors group, for sending me these cards.

Card Number 438: Panini Diamond Kings In the Zone Insert, 2020; #INT-1

A #1 card, albeit in an insert series.

Panini don't have a Major League Baseball license, but having illustrated cards rather gets round the logo issue. They just don't draw them in! The guy sitting on the bench in the background has a suggestive smudge that looks like a Padres shirt-front, though!

The write-up on the back explains why Tony was "In the Zone", in his case, the strike zone, and talks about his career batting average and his .394 season.

This card is as colourful on the back as it is on the front. My one criticism would be that they don't name the artist, although I suspect this artistic look has been created by the Panini design team putting photographs through a computer program.

Card Number 439: Panini Diamond Kings The 3000 Insert, 2020; #3000-14

If I ever built a "frankenset" (cards arranged in numerical order taken from numerous other sets) I don't know how I would count this number. 3000 is probably the highest numbered Tony Gwynn card that I've got. But really it's number 14.

The 3000 insert series honours 15 players who have reached 3000 hits.

It's another colourful card-front.

The same image of Tony is replicated on the back, combined with an amusing account of Tony scoring his 3000th hit.

That's a new metaphor to me - "golfed a single". I've never heard a hit in baseball being described as "golfed" before. The choice to paint him in a brown uniform is slightly odd, considering he was wearing the grey road uniform when he golfed that single, but it doesn't really detract from the impact of the card. And at least they got the date right! (Unlike Topps!)

Total: 439 cards