One card only - Naturel's Project 2020 card

I wasn't intending to add to the three Project 2020 cards of Tony I already had, but this came up in an eBay lot of three Project 2020 cards all by the same artist, Naturel. 

The lot was competively priced. And here we are.

Card Number 640: Topps Project 2020, 2020; #40

I think it's quite clever how Naturel used triangles to represent letters and yet the word 'Padres' still feels quite obvious. Depsite the pop-art cubist stylings, this card is the truest to the original that I have purchased so far.

The back has a bit of detail about the artist, otherwise it's basically the same as every other Project 2020 card.

However, this was the first of these cards I've recieved still in a plastic bag with a green verification sticker on it.

That proved a bit of a hurdle to opening the mag case and scanning the card. In the end I decided to cut the bag before doing my usual trick of carefully peeling the sticker seal back on the case. These cards are for my own personal collection, anyway, so I don't feel too guilty about vandalising the stickers.

I don't often talk about how much cards cost me, or how much they are worth, but as one third of my eBay purchase, this works out the second cheapest Project 2020 card that I've bought. It's also the one with the lowest print run that I have acquired so far - just 2,319 were printed. When I entered it on Trading Card Database, I was shocked to see it listed at an average price of $65. Someone has paid a lot more than I did for it.

I wouldn't stake much on the prices on TCDb being reliable, although they are supposed to reflect the prices that people have actually paid for cards, rather than what a dealing house thinks they are "worth". A card is really only ever worth what someone pays for it. Even so, that $65 took the total "value" of my collection listed on TCDb to over $1000. (I'm sceptical it's worth anywhere near that.)

I'm hoping to sell on the other cards, which are of Sandy Koufax and Frank Thomas, or offer them for trades. I'm not looking to make a profit on them, and hopefully they can bring some joy to other collectors.

Total: 640 cards

Modern Monday - another Project 2020 card

Well, Project 2020 cards seem to  be dropping in price. This was the cheapest of the three cards I have bought so far and is the one with the second-lowest print run. (The card hobby doesn't always make sense!)

This card came from Jason from Dugout Classics who was the source of the second Project 2020 card that I featured on the blog.

Card Number 610: Topps Project 2020, 2020; #113

As with all the Project 2020 cards, this is an artists's reinterpretation of Tony's 1983 Topps rookie card. This one was designed by an artist based in the UK and for me it gives off a Hawaiian vibe, which is very fitting considering that's where Tony was playing just before his call-up to the major leagues.

One the back there is a biography of the artist, Matt Taylor.

The print run for this card was 8,401, which was a massive drop from the print run for the card by Efdot which was #92 and had 31,030 copies printed. There was a brief surge in interest in the Project 2020 range that peaked around that Efdot card. By the time Ermsy's card was printed (#161), the print run was even lower (5,543). 

I have a few theories why these cards are getting cheaper on the secondary market.

Firstly, I've heard that people bulk-ordered in the hope of getting valuable parallel versions and are now left with more than they need. 

Secondly, I think the spike in interest coincided with a huge spike of interest in baseball card collecting. That bubble hasn't exactly popped, but recently it feels like I'm seeing people who launched into the collector's groups on Facebook suddenly announcing that they are not collecting any more and putting the collections they have accumulated up for sale. (My friend Gawain, who buys and sells collections, also says more people are wanting to sell because they have decided to stop collecting.)

Thirdly, these were available to buy on the Topps website and most people who wanted one will have bought one then. That means it's harder to find a buyer if people are trying to resell these cards. Unless someone is a fan of the artist, or the player (hello!), or has decided to collect the set as an afterthought, then it might be hard to find someone who wants one. That is bad news for people who bought them thinking they would always be able to recoup their money or make a profit. But it's good news for people like me!

Having initially passed over the Project 2020 cards, I now have three. I will probably add more as and when affordable ones appear.

Total: 610 cards

One card only - headless Tony and #53

The previous three posts have all featured cards I received from Jason, who I initially chatted to when he showed off his collection of all 20 Tony Gwynn cards from Topps' Project 2020 endeavour. After he had sent me those three cards, Jason asked if I wanted to buy a spare Project 2020 card he had available. 

As I only had one Project 2020 card already, I quite happily said yes, and it arrived in the post yesterday. I haven't bothered including the outer sleeve as it's the same as the one I scanned previously. And this time I went straight to careful sticker-peeling and popped open the mag holder so I could put the card directly on the scanner.

Card Number 584: Topps Project 2020, 2020; #161

The card designs of all the Project 2020 cards took Tony's 1983 rookie card as it's base. Card #161 in the project was designed by Ermsy, and his take on the rookie card design was to remove Tony's head. I'm not really bothered by that because one of my frequent complaints about Tony's rookie card is that you can't see his face and his most prominent feature in the photo is his backside. I know other people love it, and that's fine. But I just don't.

The back of the card is plain, and has a blurb about the Project and about the artist. This isn't really a 'card' as it's printed on 3mm foamboard. I think it would be quite fun if Topps introduced these designs as insert series in future sets printed on actual cardboard.

This card had a print run of 5,543, which is quite a lot lower than the print run for the other card I own, which was designed by Efdot. That was #94 in the series at the absolute apex of the interest in Project 2020. If sales were plotted on a bell curve, this card by Ermsy was on the way back down! It's also the 33rd card released in 2020 in my collection.

Seeing this reworked image of Tony's rookie card reminded me of another thing that has bugged me about the card, and that is Tony's uniform number in the photo.

It has always been a mystery to me why he was shown wearing a number in the 50s, which looked like number 53. I have seen pictures from Tony's debut where he is quite clearly wearing number 19 - he was given that number and wore it consistently for his entire career. So that really made me wonder when this photo was taken.

I didn't find an easy answer on Google, and I went through a number of options. Maybe Topps had a photo of the wrong player - that has been known to happen. Except nobody wore 53 in 1982, and that's clearly a 1982 uniform, and none of Tony's team-mates looked like him. Another possibility was that it was a minor league picture, especially given the background. There was no way that was Jack Murphy Stadium; I've seen enough pictures to know it wasn't taken there.

I did read a story somewhere that Tony was involved in a Padres photoshoot while he was still a student at San Diego State, but I doubt he would have been running the bases in a random photoshoot and it seemed very unlikely Topps would use that. Plus that would have been in 1980 or 1981 and the uniform would have been slightly different.

Jason runs Dugout Classics in Scotland, billed as "The largest collection of vintage and throwback jerseys this side of the Atlantic", so I thought he might be the chap to ask about the number. He quickly sent me a link to a fascinating story about the restoration of this very jersey, which reveals the truth about this photo.

Tony was allocated #53 in Padres Spring Training in 1982 held at the Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, Arizona. The guide for the Spring Training has Tony listed in a footnote - there is a picture here. This would be after Tony's successful 1981 season with Walla Walla and Amarillo, and before he went out to Hawaii to play for the Islanders. 

When he was brought up to the Major Leagues in July 1982, Tony was given the number 19 jersey. At some point Topps compiled their checklist for the 1983 season and would have noted San Diego's hot rookie and allocated him card #482. Then they needed a photo, and presumably the only one they had on file would have been this one from Spring Training.

I really want to thank Jason for offering me this card and also for helping me discover why Tony isn't wearing #19 on his rookie card. I had been pondering it for ages and now the mystery is solved!

Total: 584 cards

There are three packages in transit from North America as I write this. But unless one or more of them arrives tomorrow, there's going to be a little break in blogging!

Modern Monday: Project 2020

On New Year's eve I received the last addition to my Tony Gwynn collection for 2020, and it was, fittingly, a Project 2020 card.

Topps ran Project 2020 throughout 2020, asking 20 artists to create versions of 20 'iconic' rookie cards. One of the cards was Tony's rookie card from 1983. 

The print run for these cards depended on the number that were ordered. The first few cards had a print run of a couple of thousand. Then interest exploded and the one that I've recently bought second hand was part of a print run of 31,030. Being part of the bigger print run worked in my favour as I bought it for less than its original cost.

Card Number 565: Topps Project 2020, 2020; #94

The card comes in a black packet, which I scanned. 

Inside the card comes in a mag-holder card-protector sealed with a little Project 2020 label. As I didn't have my overhead scanner set up, I scanned this on the flat-bed. The mag-holder made it a little blurry.

The back was blurry also.

One of my other hobbies is Lego, and I have grown skilled at removing a Lego sticker to reposition it if it has been stuck on a bit wonky. As an uncle I have been regularly asked by my nephew to help him with his Lego stickers, many of which were stuck already. This has become quite a skill, and I applied it to the Project 2020 seal and was able to open the mag-holder quite easily. Transferable hobby skills for the win!

This is what the card looks like outside its plastic box.

The card is printed on 3mm foamboard. I know it's 3mm because I measured it while I had it out of the mag-holder. I think it's made from the same substance as the manufactured relic reprinted rookie card that Topps released in 2020.

On the back we have a little write up about Project 2020 and about the artist in question, Efdot.

This is an attractive card and, to date, it's the most expensive card I have ever bought. I like the palm trees and the inclusion of the Swinging Friar, who wasn't on the original rookie card, but was the logo for the Padres in the era this card was released. 

I still have some questions about this rookie card. Tony is not wearing number 19 in the card and I have yet to find an explanation why. I am working on a couple of possible theories about it. But those are for a future blog post. 

This card is also the 23rd card released in 2020 to feature on this blog. That's an incredible amount of new cards considering it is almost two decades since Tony retired.

Total: 565 cards