Modern Monday - smudgy Gold Labels

A couple more cards from last year, which arrived via Michael who is a member of the UK collectors group on Facebook.

Card Number 961: Topps Gold Label Class 1 (black parallel), 2021; #12

Topps separate their Gold Label sets into three classes of increasing scarcity. Each class has a variety of different colour parallels going on. Basically, this is one of those sets with multiple similar cards of any given player. This is class 1, so the most common, but the black parallel, so less common.

The juxtaposition of Tony as a young player rocking the old brown and orange Padres look from the early 80s, with older Tony in the pinstripes and blue makes for a nice effect on the card. It's also shiny, hence the slight dappling effect around the logo in the scan. The lettering on the silver foil is in black and there are black solid patches in the various corners. That's how to tell it's a black parallel. 

On the back there are some smudges as if the card has hit some printer ink. I don't think this happened in transit becase they arrived in a penny sleeve and in a toploader. I think the ink is from the printing process. 

The term "live-ball era" was a new one to me. A quick Google revealed it is referring to baseball after 1920 when a load of rule changes were introduced to make baseball more "lively". I've frequently said that comparing Tony to pre-war playes is a bit futile, because of how much the game has changed, but I like this stat that says you have to go back to 1931 to find another player who was as consistently good at hitting the ball and not striking out as Tony. It's yet another way to cut the statistical cake to show that Tony was the greatest hitter of his lifetime. 

Card Number 962: Topps Gold Label Class 3, 2021; #12

Topps change one of the photos on the front in each of the different classes of cards. Topps has also been considerate for once, and included the class number in the foil print on the front of the card so it's easy to tell which version of the card this is.

The cardback is pretty much the same. 

Just a word on that stats box because there is an unusual line in there for 'average season'. That's not a common stat on cardbacks, and makes for some impressive reading. I would not have guessed that Tony averaged over 200 hits a season. The asterisks denote it's based on a 162-game season, so I presume it doesn't count 1982 or 1983 when he spent some time in the minor leagues, or 1994 when the season was cut short by a strike. Removing 1994 from their calculations would also explain why Topps printed his career best average as .372 instead of .394.

Or, knowing Topps, they just got it wrong!

Total: 962 cards

Sweetness (and a sour taste)

This was the card that tipped my hand into buying a recent joblot of cards from 2001, but I was very disappointed with it when I had it 'in hand'.

Card Number 711: Topps Combos insert, 2001; TC-15

The Combos were a 20-card insert series featuring stars of the past and current big names. Tony was paired with Ted Williams, one of his heroes.

The photo composition is a little bit odd, but that's not what was disappointing about this card. There is some surface damage with a large area of speckling across Tony's face. I have a feeling this card is from some recently opened packs where the cards have stuck together over time. I have seen this a lot in pack-ripping videos where older packs are opened and cards get damaged as they are pulled apart. 

The damage wasn't noticeable in the picture on eBay. I use my phone to look at eBay and that might be why I didn't see it. The damage wasn't mentioned in the listing description either, so it was very disappointing to only discover it when I opened the box of cards. 

I messaged the seller, and received a small refund for this and the handful of other cards affected. But as this was the one card I really wanted from the lot, it's not really about the money.

Despite the damage (which is also visible on the back of the card, below), this is a nice concept for a card. The "Sweetness" refers to Tony and Ted's sweet swings as they batted their way to greatness.

The state of this Sweetness card has left a sour taste in my mouth, and puts me off buying from that seller again. At the moment this is just a place-holder in my collection and hopefully I will find a nicer copy one day.

Total: 711 cards