One Card Only - Called to the hall

Day 2 of Treble-F, the Fabulous Fleer Fortnight. After yesterday's mega-post, there's just the one card today.

Card Number 925: Fleer Ultra Call to the Hall insert, 1996; #3

All ten cards in this insert series feature portraits painted by "J. Forman". According to BaseballCardPedia, Fleer gave away the original pieces of artwork as prizes in a competition.

I can't track down any reference to who J. Forman is. I am certain he is neither of the artists I found called J. Forman as one was active in the 19th century, and the other died in 1969. On an entertaining blog post by the Junior Junkie, I found a lot of detail about the Fleer Ultra set from 1996 but no details of the artist. The Junior Junkie singles out Tony's card from this insert set and issues a dire warning:

"...if you ever come across the Tony Gwynn from this set, do not look directly at it. Promise me!!"

Is it really that bad? Well, maybe.

On the back, Fleer give their reasons why they think Tony should be admitted to the Hall of Fame. There is an unusal name dropped into their write-up - Joe Medwick. That wasn't a name I was familiar with even though he is in the Hall of Fame. Apparently, one of his nicknames was 'Ducky'. 

Joe is yet another record-setter from baseball's past that Tony got compared with. These comparisons happened a lot because Tony matched or broke records that were established before World War II. Often you have to go back to the 1930s to find players with better records than he achieved. 

Total: 925 cards

Modern Monday - at school with Snoop Dogg

Card Number 842: Topps Project70, 2021; #504

I'm still not a huge fan of Project70 as a concept. But I like this card, drawn by rapper Snoop Dogg, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it's artistically very good. Secondly, it draws on part of Tony's life that is often overlooked in these Topps projects and establishes a personal connection with the artist. Snoop Dogg attended the same high school as Tony, Long Beach Polytechnic in Los Angeles. There are several photos of Snoop posing with a car in front of the school in the way Tony is depicted here. Snoop has drawn himself alongside his high school's famous alumnus, almost genuflecting towards him.

Would Tony and Snoop have been friends in high school? Maybe not, actually. Another celebrity who attended Long Beach Poly, Cameron Diaz, claimed that she bought weed off Snoop, who was a year above her when she was at the school. I doubt Tony would have hung out with anyone who was selling drugs. However, Tony did have a musical side. He sung some backing vocals on one of his daughter's records. So, who knows, maybe he and Snoop would have collaborated if they had been classmates.

The back of the card contains none of this, and the bio for the artist is rather sanitised.

I had decided not to buy any more Project70 cards. My resolve was weak when it came to this. It's also the 21st card released in 2021 that I have added to the collection, which has a nice synchronicity to it.

Total: 842 cards

Butterflies and apologies

Last week I blogged about how it took an exact calendar month for my Project70 cards to travel from Scotland to Wales (read the saga here). Jason, who sold me the cards, was very apologetic about the delay and, unprompted, sent me another card by way of apology. This time it took less than a week to arrive!

Card Number 681: Topps Project70, 2021; #92

The card is designed by grafitti artist RISK (real name, Kelly Graval) and is based on Tony's Topps card from 1991.

RISK has basically changed the background of the card while keeping the photo of Tony pretty much the same. I didn't realise until I fished this image out to compare with the Project70 card, that in the picture Tony is wearing Mimsbandz, as discussed last week in the blog post about the Project70 card designed by Mimsbandz!

RISK has added lots of colour in the background and also some big, colourful butterflies. There aren't many butterflies featured on baseball cards. Butterflies feature in a lot of RISK's artwork, acting almost as a signature motif in several paintings - as seen on his website. (I particularly like the ones called PGFY and Valley - that probably says a lot about me.)

If there was one thing I would have changed about this design, I would have altered the 40 year anniversary logo to say 70 year, and bring it up to date. But that's being picky.

The back of this card is similar to the other Project70 cards. One touch I really like is the use of the chronologically correct 1991-era Padres logo! I appreciate that sort of attention to detail.

The print run on this card was 2,214 (according to Trading Card Database), which is lower than the Mimsbandz card of Tony and a lot lower than the card Keith Shore designed with Tony looking down from Heaven at Fernando Tatis Jr. Looking at the print run numbers after this card, they seem to be on an overall downward trajectory, with the majority of cards after this one in the range not getting past 2,000. (A card depicting Alex Rodriguez as a Mariner was the first card where the print run dipped below 1,000 and a few more have done so since.)

Since Project70 started Topps has added Mickey Mantle to the list of possible subjects, and those cards have been popular, but otherwise it seems to be a handful of artists with a large fanbase recording higher print runs, regardless of the subject of the card. 

I have a few thoughts why Project70 seems to be stalling. For one thing it is a lot like Project 2020 last year, but unlike Project 2020, which had defined parameters from the outset (20 artists producing 20 cards each), Project70 is bigger and has fuzzier edges. 

Secondly, Topps have increased the release rate, with more cards available each day now. So it's samey and there is more of it, which just means more of the same. 241 cards are already listed in the range and there are still four months of the season to go!

Thirdly, Topps seems to be changing the scope of Project70, and it feels like that is being done to try and artifically boost interest. For example, they announced a card of Jarred Kalenic shortly after his Major League debut. The card was designed with the rookie symbol, making it the hot young talent's first major league rookie card. This comes across as opportunistic and mercenary.

And, then, finally, some of the cards just aren't that interesting. Either the subject choice is too niche, or presented in a way that puts people off (like the aforemenetioned A-Rod as a Mariner), or the execution isn't very exciting. 

But, having said all that, I like this card by RISK, butterflies included, and I want to thank Jason for sending it to me. 

Total: 681 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 - 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

Sharing the Spotlight - with Fernando in the Gallery

This card came via Andrew T in the UK collectors Facebook group. Andrew offered me first dibs on it and I said yes. 

Card Number 573: Topps Gallery, 2020; #MA7

There were 10 cards in this "Master & Apprentice" insert series in Topps Gallery.

Fernando Tatis Jr has really made the headlines in the last year or so, and his rookie cards have been very popular. In fact, as a Padres collector, the chase for rookie cards featuring "El Nino" made Padres cards more expensive than usual recently, and slightly harder to get. Suddenly people wanted the Padres in box breaks. What is this popularity thing? 

The 'Master & Apprentice' phrase feels a bit Star Wars-ey to me. And that is a slight niggle about this card. As far as I know El Nino never actually met Mr Padre, or was coached by him. (One of Tony's students at San Diego State was Stephen Strasburg, the 2019 World Series MVP!)

Another discrepancy is that the players have been painted with Petco Park in the background. Now, while Tony did go to Petco Park after he retired, he never played at the Stadium. For his entire career the Padres played their home games at the Jack Murphy Stadium (most recently known as the SDCCU Stadium), which is apparently being demolished right now. (Bang goes my plan of a pilgrimage there when the pandemic is over!)

But apart from that anachronism, it's clear why Topps paired Tony and Fernando on this card - they are both exemplary hitters. Fernando is a great batsman and despite the nonsense last season about him having to apologise after hitting a grand slam when Texas were already trailing in a game, he's clearly one of the most exciting players in a currently very exciting Padres team. So, a worthy young player to share a card with Tony.

I didn't know until reading this card that Fernando's batting average in his rookie year was higher than Tony's. Whether it will be a similar "springboard" to batting titles and an eventual place in the Hall of Fame is impossible to know right now. Hopefully he has a long and mega-successful career ahead of him, particularly in Padres colours, but these things are totally unpredictable. Whatever happens, Fernando will always be remembered as a contributor to the "Slam Diego" grand slam streak of 2020 that really lit up the season.

Topps have included the artist's name on this card. On his website John Giancaspro says he was six years old when he first saw a DonRuss Diamond Kings card and realised he wanted to be a sports artist. John uses photos as a base for his art, which is fairly common on these kinds of "illustrated" cards. He started doing portraits when he worked as a bat-boy or the New York Mets in 1991-92 - there's a fun photo album on his website - and he also designed some cards for the Diamond Kings series in 2012.

I like learning about the artists whose drawings of Tony Gwynn feature on baseball cards, so Topps get a bonus point from me for including the artist's name like this. 

Total: 573 cards - this is the 27th card in the collection released in 2020.