Back to base: SP in the late 90s

A short run of base cards from the Upper Deck SP ranges. These days "SP" means "Short print". I've previously tried to discover what 'SP' meant when Upper Deck was using it, but haven't had any joy. The cards were a premium range for Upper Deck, which means some are printed on foil board... on both sides! That's fancy, and annoying to scan. 

Anyway, enough preamble, let's get back to base!

Card Number 1029: Upper Deck SP, 1996; #160

This is one of the cards that's printed on foilboard on both sides, so I had to use the overhead scanner twice for it. There's also double photo use on the front, although the head and shoulders photo is placed oddly in line with Tony's backside in the main photo.

The foilboard on the back gives the plastic coated outfield wall in the background an authentic sheen.

The write up amusingly describes Tony's sequence of batting title wins as a "habit". That's some habit!

Card Number 1030: Upper Deck SP, 1997; #155

This card has a shiny front and a matt back. The rather odd silver wedge on the left hand side gives this card an odd vibe. For some reason it reminds of the sets that card companies put out aiming at kids, like Triple Play or Fun Pack. 

This set has the head and shoulders photo on the back. It's a really good photo that has appeared on some other cards - like one of the Collector's Choice cards in this post.

The description is less amusing than the previous year, almost mundane in comparison.

Card Number 1031: Upper Deck SPx, 1999; #44

There were several different 'SP' sets in 1999, including SP Authentic, which was the new name for the main SP set. SPx was another range in the SP stable, with the first sets including holograms as chase cards  although there weren't any in the 1999 set.

This base card has a big embossed foil panel on it. And a design that reminds me of Meccano.

Having two photos on the back is less impressive when one of them is the same one that appeared on the front of the card, and is being used like a watermark.

This time it's the batting average above .300 that's "routine". Tony's run of batting titles had come to an end in 1998. But he did get to play in the World Series, and, as the card notes, he passed the 1000 mark for runs batted in. 

Total: 1031 cards

Tuesday Twins - photo edition

When I looked through the cards that Richard sent me recently, two cards matched so much I instantly thought, 'That's a twins post!'

Card Number 760: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1985; #29

This was the first time Tony was included in these sets of glossy cards that were mailed to collectors who sent in tokens. I have previously blogged some of his cards from these sets that were issued in later years.

That yellow shirt was history in 1985. After reaching the World Series in 1984, the Padres revealed an all new look for the following season - white pinstripes at home and grey pinstripes for the road uniforms. The background of this photo makes me wonder if is was taken at a Spring Training game in 1984. Topps used photos taken at Spring Training on some cards.

The back of this card is very dull. The glossy photo on the front is supposed to make up for having nothing to look at on the back.

The other card this matches also has a dull cardback.

Card Number 761: Topps Allen & Ginter, 2012; #205

Topps had been releasing Allen & Ginter sets since 2006 but I think this is the first time Tony appeared in one of the sets. He is also on an insert card from this set.

And, there it is, 27 years after Topps produced that glossy All-Star card, the same picture appears with a small filter applied to make it look more like it has been drawn.

And here is the back. This must have felt fun and quirky once, but I feel the novelty has worn off. 

This isn't the only time Topps re-used the photo. In 2013 they mocked up what an All-Star card from 1984 could have looked like. (At least the uniform would have been right on that card!)

Topps go through phases of using the same photos in several sets released around about the same time, so seeing this picture in sets released in successive years isn't that surprising. It's a nice photo, so I'm not complaining. It was just a bit odd getting two cards in the same parcel that were released so far apart and yet look so similar.

Total: 761 cards

Reusing photos raises questions...

No new cards today, but something that's stood out to me. As I've acquired more cards I have started noticing the same photos being reused. Recently I was hunting for a blog post to check something, and I found the post with the Fleer Tony Gwynn Commemorative cards from 1991. I noticed something I hadn't picked up on before.

This is one of the cards - #5 in the insert set.

It wasn't the front that caught my eye. It was the back.

I had just been flicking through my Topps binder looking at cards from 2021, which I why I noticed this connection.

That is the Topps Archives insert from 2021 Series One. And that is the exact same photo that was used on the back of the Fleer card in 1991 - except it's not close-cropped.

So, what does this mean? Have Topps acquired the photos that Fleer used in the past? This may explain why so many cards that give me a feeling of deja vu give me a feeling of deja vu! Except, I've only ever been looking at Topps cards to find where the photos are originally used. I will need to be looking in my Fleer binder from now on.

I doubt this is a ground-breaking revelation, but I felt a bit stunned when I discovered it. Maybe other bloggers would be able to shed some more light on the situation?

Still a member of the Club

I don't personally open a lot of new product. Fortunately I know people who do. People like Gawain (Mr Cuban Baseball in the UK) who is my reliable source for brand new Tony Gwynn cards. Today's card arrived last week from the Cuban Museum in Surrey, and as ever, I'm hugely grateful. (I also want to say thanks to Marc who got in touch a few days after this card arrived to say he had a copy if I wanted it. I feel blessed to be on so many people's radar.)

Card Number 705: Topps Stadium Club, 2021; #24

I'm never going to criticise a picture of Tony in a brown Padres uniform. Particularly when it's a photo I haven't seen a whole bunch of times before. The Padres are back in brown now (and the uniforms look lovely), but I wish they would bring that colourway helmet back as well.

Some photo re-use on the back. This is a cropped version of the photo used on the 2020 Topps flagship short print card. 

That third sentence is worth scrutiny. The highest career average of any player in the "Expansion Era", which according to Topps started the year after Tony was born. Why not just say during his lifetime, eh? Basically, there was no better consistent hitter in the 20 years before Tony got drafted, during his 20 year career, or in the 20 years since he retired.

Greg Maddux famously swore about the fact he could never strike Tony out. I didn't realise Tony had a similar record against Pedro Martinez as well. (Although, to be honest, 139 plate appearances against both pitchers combined feels a bit low.)

With stats like this, thought, it's easy to see why Tony still has a place in the Stadium Club. Long may that continue.

Total: 705 cards

Gold medal photography

Card Number 684: Topps Update Golden Greats insert, 2012; GG-95

The first 75 cards in the Golden Greats insert series were inserted into Topps flagship Series 1 and 2. Cards 76-100 appeared in Topps Update in 2012.

This card might look familiar. Topps used that photo at least three times between 2009 and 2012 when this card came out. Here it is on the Legends of the Game insert from 2009.

And here it is again on the Legendary Lineage insert card from 2010.

I will have to find out if this image was used on a Topps card in 2011. I kind of hope it was. If not, three times in four years is pretty heavy use anyway. At least in 2012 the card had a 'golden' theme rather than a 'legendary' theme.

After the familiar photo on the front, the back is unique. It's a vignette from Tony's career about a 3-RBI walk-off double against the Dodgers. That happened on June 11, 1993 - so almost 28 years ago to the day!

Thanks again to Marc, for sending me this card.

Total: 684 cards

One card only - Gypsy gold from 2012

I had been feeling a little bit down recently but my mood was lifted last week when two fellow collectors contacted me separately on the same day to each show me a card and ask if I would like it. One of those people was Laura, the t-shirt designer who created the .394 t-shirt I am wearing in my bio pic to the right there (if you are looking at the web version of this rather than the mobile version!) 

Laura has created a few Padres-themed t-shirts, including a "Slam Diego" design, which I was wearing on Wednesday to watch the first game in the Padres' double-header against the Rockies, when Victor Caratini hit a grand slam! You can check out more of Laura's designs here.

Card Number 675: Topps Gypsy Queen gold frame parallel, 2012; #252

This card is numbered 252, like the base card, but there were actually only 100 cards given the 'gold frame' treatment.

I had wanted this card for a while because I wanted to talk about Topps re-using images on cards. I knew this card set used the image that had appeared on Tony's Topps card from 1988.

The Gypsy Queen version has been sharpened in photoshop, but the equipment in the dug-out and the people in the crowd are the same. 

I'd like to be able to claim that I spotted this all by myself, but actually it's because I saw the card designs next to each other in an image of an auction lot on eBay. I 'borrowed' that image as a reference and have kept it for several months waiting for the opportunity to use it.

That picture shows what the regular base card looks like. This is a 'gold frame' parallel, which means there is literally a gold card frame stuck on the front of the card in a decoupage style. It's hard to see on the scan but that gives the card added depth and makes a real nice effect.

Based on my research, I think the framed versions were included in the 'value packs' which contained 3 packs of Gypsy Queen cards and 3 framed parallels. The gold were the most common framed card. There were also blue-framed cards serially numbered to 599 cards, and black-framed cards that were released in a print run of one card each (known as 1/1s).

There were lots of variations in this set as well, so there are two variants of Tony's base card and two variants of the 'mini' version of his card. There don't seem to be any variants of the framed cards on Trading Card Database, but even so that adds up to a lot of different versions of this card for collectors to tray and track down. It's also a good illustration of the 'bloat' that has happened in terms of total cards released for a given player. 

The back of the card is sllightly dull in comparison. At least it wasn't complete gibberish like the cardback the previous year.

"He paced the NL..." is an odd phrase. Maybe the cardback writer felt "led" was a bit too boring a word to use on a boring cardback.

And now an added bonus. I said I had been feeling a bit despondent recently. When I opened the envelope and took the card out there was a little post-it note on it with a cheerful message. It really made my day!

I hope that however this blog post finds you, you find the time to look for rainbows when it rains.

Total: 675 cards

Tuesday Twins - another Magic Moment

In 2000, Topps included some 'Magic Moments' cards in their flagship set. They were issued with overprints commemorating various things. I blogged about three of the cards, and an Opening Day version, back in June.

There are five different overprints in this set, and I have recently added a fourth version of this card to my collection.

Card Number 548: Topps, 2000; #240 (1995 Batting Title)

The cardback explains why Topps picked the 1995 batting title as the one to highlight on this card.

Putting all four cards together makes a nice display.

The 3000th hit card was included in the Topps Opening Day set in 2000. There is a fifth overprint still to get as well. So, Topps really made the most of this photograph in 2000. However, that wasn't the first time Topps had used this photo. It also appeared on the back of a Bowman Chrome card in 1999.

This takes this photo up to 7 appearances on baseball cards across 3 sets, which is reasonably impressive for a time before the current era of multiple parallels. 

Total: 548 cards