Target Field Suite Level Hallway. Someday when I have a man cave it will be decorated in giant reproductions of classic Topps Dodgers cards.
(via The Baseball Collector)
Topps National Chicle Baseball is in stores now. I wasn’t going to post any more about it until I got some packs in hand, but a post of Dodgers over at Blue Heaven showing this “WTF?” card of Campy gave me no choice. The concept of putting past players in modern uniforms is pretty stupid to me, but whatever. My biggest problem with this is the proportions! Topps, you can’t do an all painted set and hire fucking amateur hour artists! I know that the illustration industry isn’t quite up to par with the golden age of the 1950’s, but the first all painted set in decades should NOT look like this.
Look for future artistic crimes posted here after I get my own packs of Chicle, it’s pretty much the only reason i’m going to pick some up.
Cards I’ve Been Meaning To Pick Up #3
The Third in a series of cards I’ve wanted to add to my collection. Not necessarily out of my price range, I just haven’t gotten them yet.
1969 Topps Johnny Bench.
Not his true rookie, but way better looking than his 1968 card. The giant “All Star Rookie” trophy, the innocent looking Bench with matted down hair timidly looking at the photographer waiting for his picture to be taken, the ads on the outfield wall, and the classic 1969 design make for a damn near perfect card of this Hall of Famer.
One day it will be mine.
Cards I’ve Been Meaning To Pick Up #2
The Second in a series of cards I’ve wanted to add to my collection. Not necessarily out of my price range, I just haven’t gotten them yet.
1953 Topps Roy Campanella
1953 Topps might be my favorite baseball card set ever. It was entirely hand painted with artwork that puts the quality of the upcoming National Chicle set to SHAME. And from that set of cards, Roy Campanella’s might be my favorite. How can you go wrong with a huge grin and a missing tooth? And not only a Dodger but a truly amazing dodger at that.
Campy came up to the majors in 1948, 1 year after Jackie Robinson first integrated the sport. He played for 9 years with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a 3 time NL MVP and an 8 time All Star selection, he would hold the Dodgers franchise record for RBI’s in a single season until it was broken by Tommy Davis in 1962. In 1955, his final MVP season, he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series against the Yankees with a 2 run homer in the 3rd game and another home run in the 4th. The Dodgers moved west to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, but Campanella never got a chance to catch in LA. A tragic car accident left him paralyzed in January of 1958.
“Roy Campanella night”, an exhibition game vs the Yankees, was held in Los Angeles at the Coliseum prior to the 1959 season. A crowd of 93,000 people came out to honor Campy, a truly touching moment in Dodgers history.
Someday I’ll own this card.
649.00 for a $1-2 Dollar Willie Mays Reprint
This is sad. The seller KNEW it was a reprint and disguised the fact by playing dumb and starting the auctiton price HIGH. How do I know they knew? Because I contacted the seller and said “You PROBABLY should tell the bidder this is a 1991 reprint card worth maybe a dollar or two. I mean, it would be the right thing to do” and got no response. Also because any quick search on ebay or google would reveal that “Topps Archives” is a reprint.
Yes the buyer should have been a bit more diligent in their research before bidding, but I’d have to say more blame lies with the seller. The high starting price, the “unkown” in the reprint/original section and “Age: From the Topps Baseball Archives” all make it seem like they were trying to pull a fast one. Ebay leaves me no way to contact the buyer (or even know who they were) in order to tell them not to pay. Sad.
Be careful on ebay everyone!
Traded my 1952 Del Crandall and a few 60’s commons for this gem. As a collector I say I’m most interested in owning a card because of the design or the photo (as well as the team). Of course I take book value into account but I’d rather lose 10 bucks in value on a trade in order to get an awesome looking Dodger. I mean… look at that grin. Can’t wait to see it in person when I finally redeem my Topps Million cards.
The last time the Chicago Cubs won a World Series this is what baseball cards looked like.
(From an amazing post by Night Owl)
Happy Opening Day everyone!
Deadspin’s The Rise and Fall of a Hobby in 12 Baseball cards is a pretty great article.
Remember kids if you ever build a time machine, take it back to the early 60’s when Sy Berger was about to dump all the dead stock 1952 high numbers into the Hudson and offer to take them off his hands.
Cards I’ve Been Meaning To Pick Up #1
The First in a series of cards I’ve wanted to add to my collection. Not necessarily out of my price range, I just haven’t gotten them yet.
1965 Bob Uecker.
Most famous for his acting career in the 1980’s, Bob had a 6 year Major League career in the 1960’s. Although he was very week offensively (.200 batting average), but he was nearly flawless behind the plate during his 6 years of play. His below average stats don’t stop his cards from fetching an above average price due to his fame as an actor and as an announcer.
When I was a kid my mom’s silver haired boyfriend was nearly a dead ringer for Bob who was at the height of his fame. It was hilarious whenever anyone called him “Mr. Uecker” and he would play along.
His 1965 Card is my favorite and one day I’ll add it to my collection.
Last week Beckett posted some more National Chicle Baseball images. I felt compelled to post because they pictured a current Dodger, too bad it looks nothing like him. Again, great idea for a set but the quality of Illustration is across the board. From “Amazing” to “Grade school sketchbook.” I mean.. are you kidding me with that Matsui?! You have amazing cards like this Phil Rizzuto and then… Eckersly? Holy crap that’s awful
Also…. another set ruined by poorly placed, too big, semi transparent, drop shadowed logo. Topps - Ginter looks so good because you keep your ugly logos off of the front!
(via fatshawnkemp)
One of the few ‘91 Upper Deck cards that survived from my original baseball card collection to my current collection.
Topps Heritage is out and I wont be collecting it. Main reason being I’m collecting the Topps base and MAYBE Allen & Ginter this year but… Look closely at the 2010 Heritage Manny card and the 1961 Jim Gilliam original design. Now, Heritage is the first pack I bought that got me interested in baseball cards again. However when I opened it something bothered me, has bothered me the last few years since then, and is the reason I don’t collect Heritage. It’s not the photography, Topps does a not perfect but alright job with that. There’s only so much you can do to modern players in modern uniforms to make it look vintage. It’s not the typography, that’s close enough. You see it? It’s that GIANT, not vintage looking, semi transparent grey with white outline logo on the front of every god damn card!
First of all the logo doesn’t look vintage at all. Second, a grey logo with a white outline is just ugly. Third, nothing was semi transparent in graphic design in the 50’s and 60’s..nothing. Last, the original cards didn’t have a logo on the front! Why do you have to put an ugly logo to ruin EVERY card?! If you have to put a logo put a regular vintage Topps logo!
The Conversation probably went something like this the first year.
Designer: “Here are the proofs for the Heritage cards based on the ‘52 set”
Executive: “Looks great I wouldn’t change a thing. Don’t you think it needs a logo?”
Designer: “Well we have the heritage logo here on the back”
Exectuive: “Don’t you think we should move it to the front?”
Designer: “But, the original cards don’t have any logo”
Executive: “You’re right, well put it on the front and make it semi transparent”
Designer: “I just dont think it needs it”
Executive: “Without a logo people will think they are buying 1952 cards”
Designer: “But they’ll be modern players and they’ll be buying a pack that tells them they are modern cards in the design of the old cards”
Executive: “Lets just put the logo on there and see how it looks:
Designer: “okay” ::makes ugly logo on the front thinking it will get turned down::
Exectuve: “PERFECT! Don’t you think that looks great?!”
Designer: “I’m just gonna go home and take a bath with a toaster”
I cannot make a trade!
I’m obsessed with Topps Million, which I guess is understandable considering the cool cards I’ve gotten so far. Since my last post I’ve gotten a 1953 Art Schult (bleh.. a Yankee) and a few ‘93 junk cards. But I want to make a TRADE. I’ve gotten some offers for my ‘52 cards. One was a few ‘53 commons for my ‘52 common that I thought about and declined, and one was a 1987 Mariners Manager card for my ‘52 Bob Hooper.. also declined obviously. So I decided to make some offers of my own. I’ve mad a few reasonable offers, a few unreasonable offers and a few offers I thought would work. One offer I made was my 1987 Ozzie Smith for a 1987 no name card. I’m not paying to ship an ‘87 card either way so I figured I would at least make some offers that would get accepted just to get a trade. NOTHING. I’ve now made 10 offers and haven’t even gotten declined yet, they are just sitting there. Ugh. Anybody made a sucessful trade yet?
