I bought some modern cards: 2019 Donruss

For the first time I bought a significant number of modern cards, with some 2019 Topps Series 1 and some 2019 Panini Donruss, all at the local Target.  Here are some of the more unusual Donruss cards I got.

Two shiny pink Aaron Judge cards.

One of the boxes I bought had "pink fireworks" as a selling point, and every pack had at least two shiny pink cards inside.  These two are of Aaron Judge.  The first is in a "nicknames" subset, and the second recalls the old oversized Donruss All-Star cards that I've posted about several times.

Dustin Fowler autograph.

I pulled two autographs, this one in the "Bleachers Inc." series, of A's player Dustin Fowler.  Fowler was with the Yankees for one game in 2017 and played in 69 games with the A's in 2018.  So far in 2019 he's in the minors, at Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League.

Patrick Wisdom autograph.

My second auto is of the pink fireworks kind, in the "Signature Series" subset, of then-Cardinals player Patrick Wisdom.  Wisdom is with the Rangers this year, but has also been at Nashville of the Pacific Coast League.

Mike Trout and Chris Archer.

Here are a couple more pink shiny cards; Mike Trout in the "Elite Series" and Bucco Chris Archer.  I bought three varieties of Donruss; I don't know all the terminology, but I think one was a hanger pack, one was what you call a Blaster, and one called itself a "Mega Box."  All but the Mega Box had a fair number of Pirates.  Archer here is one of the only Pirates from the Mega Box.

Albert Pujols and Ronald Acuna, Jr.

Here are two very shiny silver cards, both in versions that recall those classic 80s Donruss Highlights and All-Star sets.  These throwback designs are absolutely a reason to buy the cards for me. 

Patriotic variations for Gerrit Cole and Nick Markakis.

Here are some American flag-themed parallels for former Pirate Gerrit Cole and Nick Markakis of Atlanta.

David Bote and Rated Rookie Kyle Tucker.

Here we have some blue shiny parallels, David Bote of Chicago and Kyle Tucker, Rated Rookie of Houston.  Like the Highlights and Action All-Stars, it's good to see that Rated Rookie logo coming out of a pack of cards.

Hunter Renfroe.

Patrick Corbin.

Finally, here is a red shiny parallel of Hunter Renfroe of the Padres.  And I pulled one stamped numbered card, this 1985 retro of Arizona's Patrick Corbin.  I would say that of the regular cards I got, about 1/3 were the 1985 retro design and about 2/3 were the 2019 design.  This one among the 1985-ish cards was numbered.  The front looks just like the others except for the 70/99, but the back is shiny.  I scanned the back but the effect didn't come through, so it's not worth showing I think.

So, of approximately 200 of the 2019 Donruss cards that I now own, these are the ones I wanted to show.  I think I don't fully "get" modern cards, with all the things shining and sparkling, and with photo parallels and name parallels and all that, but this was still fun.  Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas to you! And, some autograph pickups

Merry Christmas, to all who celebrate Christmas.  And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then happy Tuesday to you!  Today I'll show some nice presents I gave myself, you could say.  They weren't really Christmas presents, but they had been in my COMC account and arrived in my Black Friday box. 

Timeless Treasures Mike Schmidt.

Card back, numbered 35/50.

I restarted my collecting when I had the epiphany that as a grown man, I could afford the Mike Schmidt rookie card that was impossible when I was a kid.  And there are other things possible, too, like a Schmidt autographed card.  I don't have a great concept of what all of the early-2000s sets were, but this appears to be from Donruss Timeless Treasures, and Donruss back then must have still had a license to show team logos.  Schmidt and Carlton were the two huge Phillies stars of my day and I did manage to get Carlton's autograph at a show with Dad back in the early 90s.  A Schmidt auto is something that I think my collection really needed, and now I've got it.

Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Josh Bell.

Card back, numbered 29/150.

I've been enjoying watching Josh Bell play for the Bucs, so I wanted to get an autograph of his, too.  There are a bunch to choose from, and I picked a Rated Rookie.

Triple Threads Gregory Polanco 41/50.

I've been enjoying watching Gregory Polanco, too, at least when he's healthy enough to play.  So I got this Triple Threads of him, marking him as a Future Phenom.  I like the emerald color.

2016 Topps Archives Signature Buyback Kent Tekulve, numbered 38/134.

Finally there's this Topps Archives Signature Buyback (or something like that) of Kent Tekulve.  Back when they won the World Series in 1979, Teke was a premier reliever.  He may have never led the league in saves, but he put up solid numbers and did lead the league in games pitched and games finished several times.  He spent a few years with the Phillies and Dad and I got to see him pitch at the Vet a few times.

Happy holidays, and thanks for reading!

I bought a few modern cards

I have very few post-1994 cards; I've said this before.  The count is probably about 40, with most of those being 8 4-card packs of recent Donruss from the dollar store.  My collection is probably about 35,000 cards, so the 40 or so modern cards make up a bit more than a tenth of a percent.  I'm winding down this renewed period of collecting, so the total isn't likely to increase much.

So, here are three modern cards that were in my recent COMC box.  They're all Pirates, and this post could be viewed as being in honor of the Bucs scratching out a winning season, with their 82-79 record.  I'm fortunate that my time away from baseball just about completely coincided with their 20 consecutive losing seasons, so I didn't have to see any of that.

Josh Harrison.

I have some specific goals for the modern cards I am picking up.  I've enjoyed watching Josh Harrison play the past couple of years.  He goes out there and really gives his all.  He's probably not going to be a Pirate much longer, so I wanted a card of him in my binder.

Andy Van Slyke.

Andy Van Slyke, Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla made up the offensive core of those late 80s/early 90s Bucco teams I watched so faithfully in middle school and high school.  I wanted to get a few autographed cards to help fill up the box my PSA-graded cards go in; the autographs will go in magnetic holders and not be PSA-graded, but these can help to fill up the box.  I'm not interested in any more Bonds cards, and COMC doesn't show any Bonilla autographs.  So I have this Van Slyke to commemorate those teams amongst my autographed cards.

Andrew McCutchen.

When I started posting some of my old food-issued cards, people mentioned the Marketside pizza promotion.  I wasn't collecting then, and didn't even know what Marketside was, but I'm always up for adding a food-issued card to my collection.  I also still appreciate McCutchen's time with the Bucs, and am happy to add another card of him.  Of my about 40 modern cards, three are of Cutch. 

I have a few more modern cards (all autographs) now in my COMC account, which will ship with my Black Friday haul.  I'll show them when the time comes.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Acquisitions: Candelaria and McCutchen Autographs

I'm from before the time when card companies got the cards autographed for you.  I was perhaps still collecting when Upper Deck did "find the Reggie," which I guess started the autographs-in-packs phenomenon, but no one really expected to get an autographed card from a pack.

2014 Leaf Memories Buy Back Autograph 1987 John Candelaria.

So, now that I'm collecting again, I thought I'd take advantage of the new reality to get an autograph of an old favorite.  There are a handful of Candelaria autographs available on eBay or COMC, and I chose this 1987 Leaf/2014 Buy Back since it's actually a card from my time.  I might go after another Candelaria auto, since it would be nice to have one where he's pictured with the Pirates.

McCutchen Auto.

Card back.

I posted about this other one once before, when Andrew McCutchen was traded.  It's a 2014 Panini Classics Significant Signatures Materials Silver card.  When I showed it before, I used a COMC image of another card because I had bought but hadn't received mine yet.  I'm not into modern cards -- this makes just 20 cards that I own from post-1994, and one buyback -- but I'm glad to have this one card to commemorate McCutchen's time with the Bucs.

Thanks for reading!

Whitey Ford in My Collection

I don't have many cards of the legendary 1950s Yankees teams; I've shown what I have of Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel before.  For them, I have one good card each, a 1950s Red Man card; I've discussed those a few times.  I don't have as old a card of Whitey Ford, but I do also have one "good" card of him.  I define a good card to be from his playing days, rather than things issued afterwards, like Baseball Immortals.  I do have a Baseball Immortals and two Seckeli Superstar cards of Ford, but I won't focus on those here.

1966 Topps Whitey Ford.

1966 Topps Whitey Ford card back.

This "good" card of Ford is only so good, being from the end of his career and being in somewhat rough condition.  His last season in the majors was 1967, so this 1966 Topps shows almost his whole career stats.  The record shown is 232-97, and his career record turned out to be 236-106, so his last couple of seasons he went 4-9.  Until I bought Lee May's rookie card a few months ago, this was the only 1966 Topps card in my collection.

1961 Topps World Series Game 6 card, graded PSA 7.

This 1961 card of the 1960 World Series commemorates Game 6, in which, as the card says, Ford pitched a second shutout. I recently acquired this card for the PSA-graded portion of my collection.  I have a goal of commemorating the 1960 Pirates and their victory over the Yankees with a number of PSA-graded cards: the entire World Series subset, as well as a few key Yankees and a few key Pirates.  For the whole project, this is the only card I've got so far. 

Like the card says, this was Ford's second shutout of the series.  He pitched them to a 10-0 win in Game 3, and then to a 12-0 win in Game 6.  In the seven games, the Yankee wins over the Pirates were all blowouts, and the Pirate wins over the Yankees were all close.  It's not clear that the Pirates were the better team, but they did just enough to win.

Whitey Ford autographed picture.

Dad and I attended a number of card shows where we could get autographs.  Whitey Ford was at one.  I didn't have any Whitey Ford cards, and they probably commanded a hefty premium at the show, so we bought this picture to get signed.  I can still hear my Dad saying, "Could you sign it to David, Mr. Ford?"  Dad didn't ask me about that, he just asked Whitey Ford to do it.  I think he wanted to have a reason to say something to him.

A Surprise Autograph of Larry Bowa: Update, and Ken Howell

I mentioned in a previous post that I happened upon a Larry Bowa autograph in a box of my cards.  I had thought that my autographs were all in my binders, but it turns out this 1978 Topps Larry Bowa was mixed in with the rest of my non-binder 1978 Topps cards.  I sent it off to PSA (I only have a few autographed cards, and I'd like to have them all authenticated and protected), and it's back now.

Autographed 1978 Topps Larry Bowa.

The card grade turned out to be VG 3, and the autograph grade was quite a bit better, at 8.  This joins the other autographs I've gotten back from PSA already, including a 1981 Donruss Larry Bowa.

This seems like an appropriate place to mention that I found another surprise autograph.  I posted recently about my unopened packs of 1990 Topps Traded, and in preparing that post, I dug through my stored cards looking for my loose Traded and Update cards.  I found a 1989 Topps Traded Ken Howell, autographed.

Autographed 1989 Topps Traded Ken Howell.

I knew that I had a Ken Howell autograph -- it's on a Phillies Team-Issued Photo Card, the kind I've been posting recently (such as in this post and this other post).  The autographed Team-Issued is in a binder, but I didn't send it to PSA because it's oversized, and I've only sent regular-sized cards so far.  It's not a big surprise that I got Howell to sign two cards; an autograph ticket for him at a card show probably wasn't too expensive; it may even have been included with admission, in which case, Dad and I would have both gotten autograph tickets, and thus two autographs.  I'll send this card off to PSA before too long, along with another autographed card I recently purchased (more on that one after it arrives).

Howell pitched in the majors from 1984-1990, with the Dodgers and Phillies.  His career record was 38-48 with 31 saves and a 3.95 ERA.  I guess you would call him the ace of the 1989 Phillies; he had a 12-12 record, and the only other pitcher on the team with as many wins was reliever Jeff Parrett with a 12-6 record.  No one else had more than 6 wins.  The Phillies went 67-95 that year, but made trades that would eventually pay off in winning the 1993 NL pennant.

Autographs back from PSA (Brooks Robinson, Granny Hamner, and more)

When I sent a few important cards to PSA to be protected/slabbed (and graded, but protecting them was more important to me), I also sent most of my autographed cards.  PSA takes longer with the autographs, so they came back a few weeks later.  Here they are now, six autographed cards newly authenticated and slabbed.

Autographed 1976 Topps Brooks Robinson.

All of these cards were autographed in front of me, at card shows that my dad took me to.  This Brooks Robinson was from our first show.  I can search online for some parameters of the show, and of course there aren't a lot of internet records of 1980s baseball card shows, but I believe I found a newspaper advertisement for the correct show.  Brooks Robinson was signing autographs at a show at Concordville Inn on November 5, 1988, and this must be that first show that Dad and I attended, and where we bought my all-time favorite card, my 1973 Roberto Clemente.  PSA gave this card a NM 7 grade, and the autograph a 6.  This makes some sense to me -- I put the card in a toploader and tacked that to my bulletin board in my room, where it was exposed to the sun over many years.  The card should be in decent condition, but the autograph surely faded.  I remember that we bought one autograph ticket, and bought both an 8x10 photo of Robinson and this card.  I decided at the last moment that it was the card I wanted autographed, not the photo.  I have a binder of some autographed photos, and the un-autographed Robinson photo is in there, too.

Autographed 1954 Bowman Granny Hamner.

At another show, Granny Hamner was signing.  I don't remember if that was also at Concordville Inn, but that was our main venue for shows.  Hamner was one of the Whiz Kids, the 1950 Phillies team that won the NL pennant, and that Dad was a fan of as a kid.  We bought a Bowman card of Hamner for him to sign; the card just got a grade of Good 2 from PSA.  It's possible that it was in better shape when we bought it -- the slightly larger size as compared to the modern standard made it difficult for me to store, and it may have gotten a bit roughed up in my possession.  The autograph is in good shape, I guess, receiving a grade of 8.

Autographed 1981 Donruss Larry Bowa.

Larry Bowa was signing one day, and I must have gotten two cards of him signed, this 1981 Donruss and also a 1978 Topps which I didn't originally send to PSA.  The 1978 Topps is actually at PSA right now, sent with a second batch of cards.  Here we got a grade of NM 7 for the card and 8 for the autograph.

Autographed 1989 Donruss Gregg Olson.

While the Phillies were our local team in Newark, DE, the Orioles weren't much further away.  Gregg Olson came to one of the shows to sign, and I had him sign his 1989 Donruss Rated Rookie card.  You can see that his autograph, really, just says "GOL."  PSA grades the card EX-MT 6 and the autograph as a 7.

Autographed 1990 Topps Len Dykstra.

For the handful of cards I've sent to PSA, my only grade of 10 comes on this Lenny Dykstra autograph.  The 1990 Topps card it's attached to was rated NM-MT 8.  I won't get into what I think of Dykstra as a person, but I'll just say that he was an important part of the Phillies 1993 pennant-winning team.

Autographed 1991 Score Mickey Morandini.

Finally, we have this 1991 Score Mickey Morandini, in which he is leaping in the air and marked as a Rookie Prospect.  Adam at Wax Pack Gods had a post not too long ago about this card, Morandini, and the unassisted triple play.  I commented that I had it out for grading, and there was no population report at PSA for the card, indicating that I am the first to submit it to them.  Now that it's back, the population is 1.  The card was graded MINT 9 (my highest grade for a card of the handful I've submitted), and the autograph is graded 8.

The actual grades don't matter much to me -- I wanted these authenticated and protected.  The Robinson is really the only one that's very important to me, since it's a good card I got at the first show Dad and I attended.  All of these are part of my childhood, though, and good time spent with Dad.

A Surprise Autograph: Larry Bowa

I recently looked through my older Topps cards (1980 and older), and in my 1978 cards, I found this autographed Larry Bowa.  I had thought that all of my autographed cards were in my binder, but I guess not. 

Autographed 1978 Topps Larry Bowa.

When I was going to baseball card shows with my dad in the Philadelphia area in the late 80s/early 90s, it was very common for some Phillies, either current or former, to be there signing autographs.  The ones that I knew I had were Granny Hamner, Lenny Dykstra, Mickey Morandini, Ken Howell, a different Larry Bowa card, and the best Phillies autographs I have, Robin Roberts and Steve Carlton.  For non-Phillies, my autograph collection is Brooks Robinson, Gregg Olson, Whitey Ford, and Billy Herman.

I'm happy to have Bowa's autograph, although one might have been sufficient.  Bowa was an important part of the Phillies World Championship team in 1980, as the starting shortstop; he hit .375 in the Series.  He was with the Phillies for over ten years, then with the Cubs and Mets briefly.  I remember him for having a card as manager of the Padres in the 1987 Topps set, but he was later Phillies manager for a bit longer, from 2001-2004.  He was a five-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner, and won Manager of the Year once.  I remember his time as Phillies manager as being tumultuous, but don't remember the details, exactly.