One card only - cut signature conundrum

Last June Gawain sorted me out a huge stack of Tony Gwynn cards that blasted me past my target of 394 cards within about a month of starting the blog. A year later and he has ticked off another one of my collecting targets by surprising me with my first Tony Gwynn autographed card.

It's an offbeat card and as I started researching about it for this post, I discovered several layers of weirdness attached to it. Gawain wryly commented that meant extra content for the blog and I agreed, saying it truly was a gift that kept on giving.

Card Number 682: Leaf Best of Baseball Cut Signatures, 2011; unnumbered

This is an "authentic cut signature", except the signature hasn't been cut from a piece of card or anything. It's on a small plastic tile, about the thickness of a Scrabble piece, with rounded edges at the top. It's also in a sealed Beckett grading solid plastic box. This was the first conundrum - the card was sealed in and had been authenticated by Beckett, but it's condition was not graded. As Gawain said, why would you bother getting it authenticated and not get it graded?

Well it turns out this is how the card was shipped from the off. On Trading Card Database all the cards in the range are listed as "BGS Encapsulated". Packs of Leaf Best of Baseball consisted of just two cards in these heavy-duty plastic boxes. Each pack contained one each of a range of 'cut signatures' and a graded 'buyback card' of top players du jour rookie cards and vintage cards. The advertising poster for the set claimed there was a 1952 Mickey Mantle card in the set - one of the most sought after cards in the hobby.

Most of the cut signatures were on these plastic tiles. The cardback was devoid of explanations as well.

I went back to the wonderful crowdsourcing resource that is Trading Card Database and asked about these cards on the forums. Two members of the community replied and explained where they came from,

"Leaf purchased the tiles from some company that went out of business. The tiles were originally intended to be attached to the base of a small statue of the player that was in production." - BrewerAndy

"They were supposed to go on the base of a Hartland-type statue but the company went out of business before they could attach them." - trauty

So, that explains the autographed bits of plastic. 

Two more things I learned while researching this odd card. Firstly, I learned that the Leaf company producing trading cards today has no real links to the Leaf company of yore. Up until researching this post, I assumed Leaf had been absorbed by Panini along with DonRuss, Pinnacle and other brands. But apparently the Playoff Company, who were the previous owners of the DonRuss stable of brands before Panini, sold the Leaf name off separately. A company called Razor bought the name in 2010 and switched to trading as Leaf.

The second thing I learned was this was one of the first sets produced as Leaf by the company-formally-known-as-Razor, and it got them into trouble. Because the product included a lot of buybacks, Leaf used images of those cards on their advertising sheet. Many of those cards were Topps cards and as a result Topps sued them for copyright infringement. This was at the beginning of the Topps monopoly and they had already hounded Upper Deck out of the baseball card hobby after Upper Deck produced an unlicensed set the year before Leaf brought this set out. 

All this doesn't detract from the gratitude I feel to Gawain for helping me achieve a collecting goal. If anything, the odd origin of the auto and the corporate shenanigans around the set make the card even more interesting to me. The note from Gawain that came with the card just said "Enjoy!" and I have really enjoyed finding out the back story of this card.

And, ultimately, however odd, it is the first Tony Gwynn autograph in my collection!

Total: 682 cards

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 - Stadium Club 2020

Andy M, who sent me the DonRuss card packet featuring Tony recently, got back in touch to ask if I had the 2020 Stadium Club card. (At that point I didn't, although I've subsequently been offered it by several people.)

Card Number 402: Topps Stadium Club, 2020; #160

That's an attractive photo, although Topps seems to be doing their darnedest to make it look like a logoless card. However, it's a great pose and always fun to see a batting doughnut on the bat.

Tony's place on the all-time hitting list is dependent on whether you count Cap Anson's total as 3,435 or 3,081. This comes down to which leagues are counted as "major" leagues. Baseball Reference includes Anson's batting record from the five seasons he spent in the North American League before he joined the Cubs in the National League. Topps have followed the Baseball Reference list.

As an aside, I've noticed that Tony has had a card in all of Topps's main releases this year. This includes in Topps Archives, where it makes sense for Tony to have a card, but it also includes a short print card in the flagship set along with some inserts and retro cards, a faux rookie card, cards in Allen & Ginter and the Topps 206 sets, and so on. There have also been more than a few put out by Panini under various brands like DonRuss.

Out of curiosity I went to Trading Card Database to see how many Tony Gwynn cards have been released recently. I was astounded really to see that since Tony passed away, almost 1,800 cards have been produced and listed on the database.

In 2015, the year after he passed away, 313 cards were produced. That's understandable given the cicumstances. DonRuss produced a set of 5 tribute cards for example. There were 155 cards released in 2016, 153 in 2017 and 159 in 2018. A lot of these are parallels and short print versions of the same card, so in reality there aren't that many cards to collect to have an example of each type.

150 cards a year for a player who stopped playing over a decade beforehand is a lot. But things went slightly bonkers in 2019. TCDb lists 514 Tony Gwynn cards released last year. That level of production has continued into this year. As of the 2nd October when I was looking these numbers up, TCDb had 426 cards listed. That's more than were released in 2001, the season Tony retired.

The peak year of releases during Tony's career was 1998 when 812 cards are listed. However, at least 200 of these are variant patterns in the plastic on "Topps Tek" cards. While that is a ridiculous volume, it was at the height of the mad card boom in the 1990s, and, more importantly, Tony was still playing!

Just to show the 'bloat' in production, at the end of the 80s Tony's card totals rose from 66 in 1987 to 108 in 1990. in 1995, the season after he recorded his .394 modern day batting record, he featured on 173 cards. Then there is a huge peak at the end of the 90s, before the bell curve drops back down to more sensible levels. In 2002, the year after he retired, he featured on 232 cards. It peaks back up for a few years to an ultimate high (1,297 cards in 2005 after 648 in 2004 and before 485 in 2006), mainly because card companies started doing lots of very short print memorabilia cards, and then drops again (189 in 2010). So this is definitely a third surge in sheer numbers of cards.

There are probably lots of reasons why Tony is such a popular choice for the card companies in the last year or two. I get a sense from reading card blogs that a lot of collectors are a bit older and nostalgia plays a factor in their collecting. Cards of retired heroes, particularly the cards designed to look like cards from the 70s and 80s, or referencing events in the 80s and 90s, are targeting that demographic of collector who isn't interested in the latest hot rookie. And because absolutely every card in a set released this year will have multiple parallels as a matter of course, the number of cards will be inflated even more.

And that's why I'm blogging about a Stadium Club card released this year on a blog dedicated to a player who stopped playing 18 years ago and passed away six years ago.

Total cards: 402

Fact-check Friday

Yesterday marked the 21st anniversary of Tony Gwynn's 3000th hit. Yesterday. Here are a couple of cards that got the details wrong.

Card Number 248: Fleer Impact, 2000; #MF35

Remember Fleer Impact? It was a one season card range with low production values. The MF numbering refers to players they regarded as Mighty Fine in '99. Rhyming insert sets are fine by me, and I'm relieved that's what they were referring to when they used the initials MF.

In fairness, it's a good looking card.

But see if you can see the problem on the back. (Hint: they got distracted by nines!)

Yes, they got the date wrong. Tony made his 3000th hit on the 6th August, not the 9th August. 

It's a real shame, because this is otherwise a mighty fine card. 

Sidebar: Back in the 80s I used to go with my Dad to watch Shrewsbury Town FC play in the old Second Division of the Football League. (That's the highest level Shrewsbury have ever played.) In the 1985-6 season there was an advertising hoarding opposite where we sat for a road safety campaign that said 'Stay Alive in '85!' In the January, they updated the sign to read, 'Stay Alive in '86!' Even at the age of 10 that jarred with me. I have every reason to suspect that if Fleer Impact had lasted more than one season we would have seen cards saying 'Mighty Fine in '00' the next year!

Fleer were only three days out and their card only had the one mistake. Unlike the next card in this post...

Card Number 249: Topps Update Chrome, 2016; #3000C-12

This is a really lovely card to look at. It's super-shiny and it scans incredibly well!

Tony is in the 3000 Hits Club. When did he join this elite group? Let's have a look...

Topps must have been fact-checking their dates against their collection of Fleer Impact insert cards because they got the date wrong too! They also moved his poor mom back a generation and called her his grandma. That's two strikes, Topps!

Neither of these factual errors were recorded on the Trading Card Database, but they have been noted on there now!

Total: 249/394

Monday MVP Mixer

Some cards today that hail Tony as an MVP. Although, ironically, that was one accolade that eluded him throughout his career.

Card Number 195: DonRuss, 1988; #BC-6
This was one of 26 bonus cards available in wax packs of DonRuss cards. It looks very similar to both Tony's base card and his All Star card in the 1988 set.

It has a standard DonRuss 1980s card back as well. Apart from the number, this is exactly the same information as the base card.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that there isn't a full stop after LEAF INC on the top right hand side of the card. Trading Card Database keep notifying me that they have updated their database to take into account that versions exist of this card with and without full stops after INC. But I have to admit I really don't care!

The career highlights are the usual collection of factoids, including that Tony had two 5-hit games in the 1987 season.

Card Number 196: Upper Deck MVP, 1999; #176
OK, this is cheating a bit as the card range is called MVP, but hey...

It's not the most exciting card, from a fairly turgid set. Upper Deck went through a bit of a malaise towards the end of the 90s, and it shows here.

The back mentions an interesting milestone - Tony's 2,900th hit.

Card Number 197: DonRuss, 1989; #BC-20
This card looks very different to Tony's base card in the 1989 set.

That MVP graphic is a harbinger of change. The 1990s were coming... and so was the era of baseball cards designed on computers.

The most noticeable difference about the cardback from the previous year was the colour. Most of the content was regurgitated from the 1988 card. They added in a mention of his injury in 1988. That's about it. It's exactly the same as what was printed on his base card.

Card Number 198: Upper Deck MVP, 2000; #130
This really looks similar to the 1999 design, except for the card borders which have gone all angular.

The back has a posed photo, a stats box, and no factoids. Which is a shame because after mentioning his 2,900th hit on his card in the previous year, they could have mentioned his 3000th one on this card.

Also, the first time I saw this I thought the card was #19. But it's not. That's annoying enough for me to moan about it.

Tomorrow we will hit the 200 card marker on this blog. Until then, have a great Monday!

Total: 198/394 (over half way!)

Saturday shout out - cheers, Gawain!

Over the past couple of months I've bought a few cards from Gawain who I met through one of the UK Facebook groups. Gawain is a keen collector of Cuban baseball. I say keen collector, it's a bit more than that, as this video makes clear.

Gawain knows I collect Tony Gwynn baseball cards and a while back he told me he had asked one of his contacts in America to send some Gwynn cards over. Two weeks ago he sent me this photo.

The tall stack at the back was all Tony Gwynn cards.

We had a chat about sorting through them, and that resulted in him emailing me scans and us discussing the cards on a couple of Zoom calls, until eventually Gawain took the executive decision to just send them all to me for me to look through and return any I don't want.

He timed this well as I've taken this week off work so I've had plenty of time to really look closely through them. I'm glad he sent them to me because there are some cards with variations that are only spottable when you have the cards in hand. I kept finding new minor ways that card companies altered their cards. (And I'm starting to really despise some card companies!)

The result is I have now acquired a load of new cards.

Several evenings of scanning await me. Several blog posts await you, dear readers.

Gawain also took great pleasure in sending me another copy of the Upper Deck "push out" bobblehead that I posted about in a Monday Mixer a couple of weeks ago. The card looks like this:

Gawain wanted me to use the second card for its intended purpose. So I did. When you push it out, the bobblehead looks like this:

As Fuji said, back on the Monday Mixer post, Tony really has his game face on! He's now glowering over my desk space where I am sure he will inspire me when I go back to work next week.

He also needs a bat. I'm going to have to fashion one for him.

As I mentioned, I have a lot of scanning to do, but I wanted to show at least one card in this post from the haul that Gawain sent me, and I've chosen this one because, well, it kind of stood out from the herd when I went through them.

Card Number 132: Upper Deck Ionix, 1999; #R84
Nothing says 90s than the words "Techno, techno, techno"

In terms of design, there are two photos on the front, blotchy patterns, foil bits, the word techno repeated all over it with a 3 instead of an e, and so on.

It was also flipping hard to track down on Trading Card Database! For some reason the Techno themed cards have an R in front of the number, which means they have the same numbers as the "Reciprocal" parallel set. It was very confusing.

That's the Late Nineties Weird Card Challenge. If you can find the bloody thing, then you can add it to your list!

The back has a lot of information on it, and another photo.

They also use Tony's roster number as a design element, just to add even more confusion. I picked it up and thought, "Oh, great, they gave him card number 19!" But that wasn't the card number despite being the most obvious number on the cardback.

This whole palaver bodes well for sorting the rest of the cards. It will keep me out of mischief for a good while, and I'm sure a lot of people will be thanking Gawain for that! But they probably won't be as grateful as I am for the huge haul of cards.

[In terms of blog milestones, this is my 50th blog post. Happy half century to me!]

Total: 132/394

Saturday round up: Time Sinks and Serendipities

A chap called Tim got in touch with me, having read a few of my blog posts, and said he would like to try and help me out on my project to collect 394 different cards featuring Tony Gwynn. Then he asked if I had a wants list.

I am a disorganised collector. My cards aren't in any real order. I keep them in a repurposed Panini soccer cards binder and they are roughly ordered by date of acquisition. I've grouped certain types of cards together, but mostly they are random.

So, I decided I needed to make a list. My first thought was a trusty Excel spreadsheet but then I realised that would take a while. So I went on Trading Card Database (TCDb) where you can log the cards you own. I thought this would be quicker, but I think I chose an inefficient way of doing it because it took me several hours.

There are over 10,000 Tony Gwynn cards on TCDb. Or at least that's what they tell you. In reality many of the "cards" they list are 1/1 printing plates and the like, or barely-remembered sets with a billion variations like Topps Tek. (Do you remember Topps Tek? I don't. And after scrolling through literally hundreds of varieties I don't feel particularly enamoured of them.)

However, the huge glorious timesink that is TCDb did throw out a couple of really interesting little factoids for me, and even revealed a hitherto disregarded card in my possession that counts as a Tony Gwynn card.

Firstly, last weekend I posted about Tony's DonRuss cards in 1990. What I didn't know then, but thanks to TCDb I do know now, is that the All Star Card I've got is an error variation.

On the back there, where is says "Recent Major League Performance" it should have said "All Star Game Performance." In my previous post I made fun of how the DonRuss team had used cut'n'paste for the career highlights sections. Turns out they did the same for the box header as well, and that really should have been changed. I did point out in the post that it was his All Star Game stats but I didn't realise this card was changed for subsequent print runs. From the looks of it on TCDb, almost all the All Star cards  in this part of the DonRuss set had a similar error.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means I can keep an eye out for the corrected version and add it to the set as another card, and probably quite cheaply compared to 1/1 printing plates.

The second bonus was finding Tony listed on a Pirates card, which I actually owned.

Card number 44: Topps 1989, #699 (Pirates Leaders)

Yes, that's Tony, failing to safely make it to base. The Pirates player tagging him out is shortstop Al Pedrique, who only had three seasons in the Major Leagues after spending nine years in the Mets farm system. Originally from Venezuela, Al is now a coach with the Athletics.

This again highlights the odd choices Topps made for certain cards. Why have a leaders card that doesn't show team leaders on it? Al Pedrique wasn't a leader in any category on the back, and was barely even a Pirate for any length of time.

Two other things, though, about the back of this card. 1) It's the second Topps set in a row where Tony is on the card numbered 699. In 1988, that was the Padres Leaders card. 2) One of the names on the back of the card is infamous. Bobby Bonilla was the Pirates' joint leader for RBI. Yes, that Bobby Bonilla, the guy who signed a contract with the Mets that was so huge he will be getting paid $1,193,248.20 a year every year until 2035, despite retiring in 2001. (That really is a story worth reading about as epic fraudster Bernie Madoff is involved, and it's leaves me shaking my head at the insanity.)

Anyway, so I saw this card listed on TCDb and it rang a bell. I went and had a look through the little pile of Pirates cards that I have acquired over the years because I had a weird memory of seeing this card at some point. I must have pulled it out of a repack. Going through the cards I found it, and there was Tony, sliding desperately into a base and already being called out. I didn't know I had this card.

I did consider whether it should really count towards my total, but then I thought, if it's good enough for the TCDb, then it's good enough for me. Plus, rule 4 applies.

I have another card that Tony is gatecrashing. It arrived in a bundle of his cards I bought from someone, sight unseen. One of the cards wasn't of Tony, it was of his team-mate Greg Vaughn. However, I can see why the person would have thought it was a Tony Gwynn card.

There he is, high-fiving Greg, with his name very prominent.

Unlike the Pirate Leaders card, I'm not counting this card as a 'bonus Tony card', because it's Greg's card and it seems unfair to take it away from him. It's from the 1999 Sports Illustrated set published by Fleer.

Greg was a very different batsman to Tony, hitting 50 home runs during the Padres World Series season in 1998. The following year he was traded to the Cincinatti Reds - the first time any player had been traded the season after hitting 50 home runs. His beard was an issue, as the Reds had a ban on players having facial hair, but they lifted it for him. So, as a great servant to the Padres, who they cashed in as quickly as they could, and the trailblazer for today's hipsters who want to play for the Redsame and keep their beards, I don't feel it would be right say this card isn't his.

Total: 44/394