Another Victory quartet

My previous blogpost about Upper Deck's Victory sets contained four cards. This post contains four cards. Victory cards just seem to come in fours.

Card Number 765: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #337

Tony was a 'Big Play maker' according to this subset.

This was from the first year of Victory sets. Upper Deck used the branding in other sports too and issued Victory cards for five years. 

Design-wise, I like this card. It's bold. It's colourful. Tony is kicking up a clod of dirt in the photo. It also looks a lot like a DonRuss card at first glance (or is that just me?)

The back explains why Tony qualifies as a 'Big Play Maker', noting that he was on the brink of joining the elite group of players to record 3,000 Major League hits.

Card Number 766: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #338

The very next card in the debut Victory set featured Tony in another subset - 'History in the Making'.

The overlay of Tony running on a background made to look like a TV image is quite effective. The date history was made was the 28 April 1998. There are more details on the cardback.

I wonder how demoralised the Cubs pitching staff were at the end of the game after Tony had gone 5 for 5 in his plate appearances. They must have been glad to see the back of him at the end of the game. 

I've thought occasionally of going through all the cards and listing the other baseball players who get mentioned on Tony's cardbacks. Ty Cobb has been mentioned on loads. Realistically, I probably won't ever get round to doing that. It would be a fun diversion though. 

Card Number 767: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #464

Further on in the set, Upper Deck gave Tony a 'Rookie Flashback' card.

Despite being totally devoid of context, it's evident that is a picture of Tony sliding into home plate, given the player in front of him is wearing the strapping for catcher armour. It looks like it could be a photo from Tony's rookie season - 1982 - in which case there were three catchers who wore #14 in the National League that season. They were Alan Ashby (Astros), Mike Sciosa (Dodgers) and Matt Sinatro (Braves). Ashby played 100 games and Sciosa played 129 games that season, so they seem to be the most likely to be the mystery catcher in this photo. 

This card almost set off the Anachronism Klaxon, as Upper Deck didn't exist when Tony was a rookie. In fact, Upper Deck didn't exist for the five years included in the graph on the back of the card. (But, hey, there's a data representation bonus point for having a graph on a cardback!)

Card Number 768: Upper Deck Victory, 2000; #203

This is Tony's base card from the second year of Victory sets. If it looks familiar, that's because a shiny blue foil parallel "Ultimate Victory" version was in the first blog post about Victory cards back in July 2020.

This card design doubles up on Tony's smiling face. No complaints here!

The cardback is quite dull.The stadium picture in the watermark under the stats box is the same on every card in the set. I don't know which stadium it is; odds are high it's not Jack Muprhy stadium. 

Total: 768 cards.

Revisiting Tony's Topps rookie card...

To celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2001, Topps picked 50 cards to reprint in a large insert series. Naturally, they included Tony's "iconic" rookie card from 1983.

Card Number 752: Topps Through the Years, 2001; #36

Topps added a gold foil 50th Anniversary stamp to the front. Although it's instantly noticeable that this is printed on much better card stock than Tony's actual rookie cards ever were.

Ignore the number '482' on the back - that was the number of Tony's card in the 1983 set. There is a little line below the 1982 highlights that says it's card number 36 of 50.

I wish Topps still did a highlight for players on cardbacks. 

A few years later Topps dusted off the 1983 template again.

Card Number 753: Topps Archives, 2015; #201

This card is in danger of setting off the Anachronism Klaxon for having photos of Tony late on in his career in the design template from the beginning of his career. If the cameo photo looks familiar, it's because it had been used by Topps before, for example, on Tony's Allen & Ginter card in 2013.

The retro styling extended to the back with the little outline of the batter next to the number. However, by this point there was no room for factoids next to the giant stats box!

The card stock, however, was in keeping with the 1983 design.

I have a small but growing collection of reprints and reimaginings of this card (and the O-Pee-Chee version from 1983 as well). I won't be surprised if Topps print even more in future. 

Total: 753 cards

Mail from Pennsylvania! (Another rookie card!)

I was in the middle of a virtual work meeting when my wife propped up an envelope next to me. I could see the USA International Postage Forever Stamp and the return address for Tim, who posted a comment on my 'Gaps in the Wantlist' page a short while ago saying he would send me some cards. 

That meeting took forever to end!

When it finally did, I was able to open the envelope and see what cards Tim had sent me. I was not disappointed.

Tim lives in Pennsylvania, supports the Padres and collects Tony Gwynn cards. Tim posted a video of his collection on Twitter and I am envious of his binders, let alone his cards! 

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that one of the cards is the fourth of Tony's rookie cards from 1983. I blogged last weekend about acquiring the Fleer card that completed the trinity. I now have the "Fundamental Four" (Tim's term), although I think I'm going to refer to this as the 'Quaternity', which was a suggestion that came from one of my fellow UK collectors on Facebook.

So with no further ado...

Card Number 613: O-Pee-Chee, 1983; #143

This is a straight reprint of the Topps card #482, except for the change of logo and the addition of the word 'voltigeur' under Tony's name.

There is more French on the cardback. The pressure to make this card bilingual meant they shrank the font size and dropped one of the factoids in the box at the bottom.

For comparison, here's the Topps cardback.

The O-Pee-Chee cardback is noticeably lighter cardboard. It also says it's printed in Canada.

As someone who has experienced the difficulty in producing bilingual documents, I share the pain of the O-Pee-Chee designers trying to include as much information as possible in two languages. It can be really difficult to do, especially when one language requires more words than the other. (Typically, anything translated into Welsh takes at least 25 per cent more space than the English.) Fortunately, I don't have to produce bilingual baseball cards!

I want to say a huge thank you to Tim for sending me this card (and the others, which I will blog about soon!) and for helping me with this fourth rookie card. It nicely bookends them when they are all together.

Total: 613 cards

Tuesday Twins - from rookie year to sunset season

I've acquired a third brand new card released in 2021. It's another Topps insert, and another reprint appearance for Tony's rookie card, this time combined with his final base card proper. This card arrived via Greg, who recently joined the Facebook group for UK card collectors.

Card Number 611: Topps Double Header, 2021; #TDH1

Tony was the lead-off hitter in this insert series.

The front of the card is a straight up reprint of Tony's rookie card from 1983, with the additions of a silver foil Topps 70th anniversary logo.

On the back is Tony's 2002 card, with a grey surround - this means Topps avoided putting all their boilerplate legalese onto the card image.

This is a reprint I can really support, as it shows the length of Tony's career in a novel way. 

The 1983 card has been reprinted several times, reimagined 20 times in Project 2020, and even turned into somewhat dubious manufactured relic cards.

However, the 2002 template doesn't feature as often in my collection at all. In fact, I think Topps missed a trick here because they gave Tony the 1974 template in their throwback cards last year when they were also using their 2002 template for retired players. He is in the 1974 template again this year in the 70 years of Topps insert set.  It would be more fun to have the 2002 template with a different photo of Tony in it.

Back when I reviewed this card along with other cards from 2002, I noted that this picture could almost be an unlicensed DonRuss or Panini card, given the lack of prominent logos. There is just an arm patch that could be easily airbrushed off. 

The lack of care when it comes to photography is almost the defining feature of Topps cards. In Tony's first card you mainly see his bum. In his final card you can't see his face either.

At least Topps were consistent, is about all you can say.

I think there are actually nine different Tony Gwynn cards in Topps Series 1 this year. Beside the three I have, there is a short print in the base card design, a 1986 template insert, a chrome parallel of the 70 Years of Topps insert, a patch card, a cloth card (!) and a 1/1 cut signature. 

As I have three cards from Series 1, I am technically a third of the way through! Short prints are really hard pulls this year, apparently. So, with the exception of the 1986 insert, I think it's doubtful I will add any more. 

Total: 611 cards

One Card Only - Completing the rookie card trinity

I have wanted to complete the trinity of Tony Gwynn's rookie cards for some time. I acquired both the Topps and DonRuss rookie cards several years before I started this blog and they featured in my second ever post.

Marc, one of my contacts from the Facebook collector's groups, messaged me offering me the Fleer rookie card. He was very clear to tell me that it had a dinged corner, and included an extreme close up photo of said corner. 

(I really appreciated Marc's honesty about this. He had bought the card off someone who had sent him a photo that had the seller's thumb obscuring that corner with no mention of a ding - which the seller then blamed on the post service!)

As someone who doesn't mind cards that have obviously been loved, the ding was not a deal-breaker. I don't own a single graded card. Those sterile slabs of plastic do nothing for me and I doubt I will ever buy one. But I had an obvious gap where I had left a pocket in my binder of Fleer cards ready for the 1983 card to slot in.

When it arrived, the mark was barely perceptible. If you really look at it hard enough you will see it, but it's not noticeable when the card is sat in my Fleer binder along with all it's younger relatives.

Card Number 609: Fleer, 1983; #360

Brown and yellow uniform. Visible face. Swinging Friar logo. All bonus points! This is a perfect photo of a young, bushy-haired lad, getting ready to light up the major leagues.

There's a little portrait photo on the back, and a minor league record to boast about.

The factoid is about the franchise, rather than about Tony. He was still just a prospect in the Padres roster at this point and presumably nobody had compiled any interesting trivia tidbits about him yet. I say this as a Padres fan, but it's quite amusing that the first Padre batter ever to reach base safely did so on a fielding error. Yup. Seems 'bout right.

There was a recent article on Beckett about an 'Instant PC' of Tony Gwynn cards that included all three rookie cards.

In that article, Beckett ranked Tony's rookie cards in order of desirability as Topps, Fleer, DonRuss. I think Beckett are wrong. The only reason the Topps card commands a higher price is because of the obsession some collectors have with Topps. 

If you look at these cards objectively, the Fleer card has the best photo, the DonRuss card has the better lay-out and the second-best photo. And the Topps card is saved by the cameo portrait head and shoulders photo in the circle. The one thing in it's favour is that Tony is wearing the 1982 uniform - even if he has his spring training number on the back of the jersey. (More on that here.)

As a post-script, after I tweeted a photo of the rookie card I got asked if I had the O-Pee-Chee rookie card, which is a reprint of the Topps card. So it would appear there is a fourth rookie card to add to the trinity at some point. (At which point it will be a ... quadrinity? I need to look that up.)

Many thanks to Marc for making this blog post possible!

Total: 609 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

Multiple Milestones - 200 blog posts and 500 cards

Somehow I have managed to co-ordinate this so that this blog post features my 500th card in my 200th blog post. I have posted every day since launching on Tony's birthday on 9th May. Back then I had 195 Tony Gwynn cards in my collection and I was less than halfway to my target of 394 cards.

Last week I took delivery of a parcel that caused me some stress. First of all on the Monday, I got a dreaded grey customs charge notice through the door. I had purchased some cards from a US-based seller on eBay and managed to wangle free delivery. However, the receiving mail house had noticed my purchase was a fraction over the £15 limit for avoiding VAT. In fact, they charged me as if the dollar value of the package was in pounds, calculated VAT at just over £4 then added an £8 administration fee on top.

Not only was I being overcharged, I was being charged extra for the privilege of being overcharged. Anyway, I took the path of least resistance, logged in online and paid the fee. That part of the process was surprisingly easy. I received an email saying my package would be redelivered on Wednesday. 

But Wednesday came and went and there was no package.

On the Thursday afternoon, after the package didn't arrive with the morning post, my wife went on a mission to the sorting office to find out what was going on. She actually met our regular postman down there who confirmed the package had been delivered, but he couldn't find out where it had been delivered. Cue an early morning phone call to the management office in the sorting office on the Friday, where they were able to confirm it had been delivered to a house a few streets away from us.

Although they told my wife that they would go and find the package and deliver it correctly, she took matters into her own hands and knocked on the door herself. I was working when my phone beeped and there was a WhatsApp message from her saying "Look what I've found!" and a picture of the parcel.

According to our friendly postman, who wasn't on duty when this went to the wrong house, three different people will have sorted this wrongly for it to go where it did. My address was visible enough on the packet - so much so I've blacked it out on the photo just in case! I still feel narked that I got charged an administration fee and then it was administered to the wrong house.

The cards inside were a mix of inserts and base cards from hard to find sets. Today's card was in the parcel and it links back to the 80s week theme from last week. 

It took a lot of hard work to get it here, but here is the 500th card on the blog:

Card Number 500: Topps Rookie of the Week, 2006; #22

In 2006, Topps had a 25-card insert series where they recreated a rookie card for baseball stars, using the template of the player's original card and new photos. Well, I say new... 

If that main photo looks familiar, that's because last week I showed Tony's "glossy All-Star" card from 1985. Which uses the same photo. Here's a reminder:

The picture on the card from 2006 is much crisper, probably because it was printed to a higher level of quality.

The card back has two numbers on it. Ignore the #482 - that was Tony's card number in Topps's 1983 release. 

The real card number is up the side. 

I have no objections to Topps reusing good photos of Tony on new cards. This is better than just reproducing his original rookie card again (complete with the photo that is centred on his bottom). It's a very nice card and worth the extended hassle caused by the post office.

It's also the first card from 2006 to feature on this blog - it only took 500 cards for me to find one from that year!

Total: 500 cards

Join the (Stadium) Club

A few posts back I included a couple of cards from Topps's Stadium Club range and realised I hadn't yet blogged about any Stadium Club cards. So to rectify that, I'm going to post some over the next few posts.

Stadium Club was Topps's premium product in the early 90s, produced to compete with Upper Deck. From the outset the cards featured 'full bleed' imagery, in other words, they didn't have borders. They also tried to use better, more innovative photography, and had jazzier card backs.

Card Number 151: Topps Stadium Club, 1991; #308
This shows off the best of Stadium Club's very first set. A close up, high resolution, photo that is in focus and captures the subject in a way that makes them look good. In other words, it's the opposite of the kind of photos Topps used on their regular flagship products at the time.

Perhaps to highlight my point about Topps photography they used a picture of Tony's rookie card on the reverse, where the main focus of the picture is Tony's bottom.

I have a theory Topps included rookie cards to remind everyone that they were the company with the history in the baseball card world, unlike those upstarts Upper Deck. (I've only just noticed he's not wearing number 19 on that uniform. Whoah!)

Topps also tried to provide some more in depth 'analysis' on the back, dividing up Tony's hitting averages on fastball pitches and identifying strengths and weaknesses. I don't think that would be much use to the average baseball card collector, but it may have informed some discussion among pitching staff. "Pitch it at waist height on the inside!"

Card Number 152: Topps Stadium Club, 1992; #825
Another iconic photo. I particularly like how the photographer is reflected in Tony's Oakleys.

The cardback is very similar to the previous year, including the rookie card.

Again, the analysis is about how well Tony fared against fastballs, although they have limited this to batting against left-handed pitchers. The square for right-handed pictures is confusingly left blank. I'm certain he hit a few.

There was a special issue of Stadium Club in 1992 called Stadium Club Dome. It was mainly rookie cards, draft picks and the players selected for the All Star Game in 1991, which was held in Toronto.

Card Number 153: Topps Stadium Club Dome, 1992; #73
The first Stadium Club card to feature Tony at the plate.

The back includes the logo for the All Star Game in Toronto. There was a fashion in the early 90s for cards devoted to the All Star Games - Tony had an Upper Deck card from the Toronto game as well, but they had stolen a march on Topps and released it at the tail end of the 1991 season.

The statistics on the back explain why Tony was selected for his seventh consecutive All Star squad in 1991. His good form continued as he got two hits in the game, although he ended up on the losing side.

Card Number 154: Topps Stadium Club, 1993; #538
This photo looks like it's from the same day as the 1992 card photo.

This was the last year of the oval Stadium club logo. Nineties design was starting to creep in, with the little ball element whizzing in from behind Tony on the card.

The cardback includes a photo with very crisp Padres pinstripes. The rookie card makes its final appearance on a Stadium Club cardback.

The stats on the back have grown more eclectic. Tony's hitting average when playing on artificial turf was high. His percentage of missed swings was incredibly low, getting down towards 1 in 20. (That's actually quite incredible, almost 19 times in 20 swings he connected with the ball.)

Card Number 155: Topps Stadium Club, 1994; #151 (Gold Parallel)
The foil bit under 'Gwynn' marks this out as a parallel. I actually didn't realise this until I came to write this blog post. That's another ordinary base card to chase down.

I think this is a great photo, reminiscent of the best of the Studio cards. Tony has a no nonsense expression. He looks serious, but not stern. Also, that's his name on the bat he's holding. Product placement!

To be a proper Nineties cardback, a card needs a mix of fonts, all in different colours, odd kerning, design elements dropped all over each other, and as many licensing logos as possible. There are at least six fonts crammed onto the cardboard rectangle here.

The little batting graphic is supposed to illustrate which areas of the field Tony was most likely to hit the ball towards. He was remarkably consistent, according to this, as he sprayed the ball in every direction about equal amounts of time.

Card Number 156: Topps Stadium Club, 1994; #537
A second card for Tony in the set, part of the "Quick Start" insert series.

The blur effect makes this card look cool. And a bit like the overly airbrushed monstrosities being issued today.

From what I can work out, the players in the Quick Start series all had a tendency to start the season well and then tail off. In Tony's case that usually because his injuries started to mount up. One of the contributors to He Left His Heart in San Diego reckoned that if Tony hadn't played the final few weeks of the season for most of the seasons his overall batting average would have been higher and he would have won more titles. But Tony wasn't that kind of player. He wanted to go out and play even if his form was tailing off.

There are more cards from the Stadium Club to come over the next few days.

Total: 156/394

Relics from 2020

It's feels anachronistic to be talking about "relics" from 2020, as that's this year. Anyway, here are two relic cards from Topps' 2020 flagship series.

A few posts back I showed the latest 'retro' card that Topps have put out.

Here's the relic version.

Card Number 96: Topps 1985 Insert Series Relics, 2020; #85R-TG

It's a dark blue swatch, although it looks black in the scan. It's probably from a road uniform. The back stipulates that it's not from any particular game, event or season.

At least the cardback screams CONGRATULATIONS! to make you feel a little bit special. I acquired this card from Ian in the Baseball Cards UK Facebook group.

Card Number 97: Topps Rookie Retrospective Medallions, 2020; #RCR-TG
Topps didn't use 'rookie card' logos back when Tony first appeared on a card. Now, 37 years later, they have decided to fix that oversight by printing a super-thick foamboard card and inserting a metal stud into it.

The printing on the card is actually that fuzzy. I think it's because it's printed on foamboard rather than card stock. These cards come in the 'Blaster Box' that Topps sell with 7 packs and one of these cards in each box, although I got mine off eBay. There are 50 players honoured in the set and the cards all have parallel versions at different levels of availability.

The back is particularly dull. There isn't even an exclamation mark after the word 'congratulations'.

These medallions are classed as "manufactured relics" and are totally a novelty item. Still, something a bit different, and technically I have another rookie card.

Total: 97/394