It ain't over 'til it's over

The dime box frankenset, Page 8: Numbers 64-72

The latest frankenset results are in.

Win -- 1995 Collector's Choice #55 Sid Bream (12 votes)

Place -- 1991 Score #58 Rick Parker (9 votes)

Show -- 2000 Ultra #56 Jose Lima (6 votes)

Sid Bream took an early lead and didn't let go, collecting 12 of the 32 total votes last week for the victory. I agreed with the masses this time around, as I couldn't go against one of the defining moments of the '90s.

Oddly enough, I've never actually seen another card that depicts this famous PATP, which is strange considering how legendary the image of Sid Bream sliding home has become.

I'm proud to introduce our newest batch of nine nominees.

Let's meet them.

1991 Fleer #64 Mariano Duncan

Corralling a wild throw from the catcher.

1994 Upper Deck #65 Darren Daulton

A play at the plate on tatooine. 

2014 Topps #66 Kris Medlen

Throwing it back to the Negro League's Atlanta Black Crackers, perhaps the greatest team name in the history of sports. 

1984 Fleer #67 Rudy Law

The photographer was never found. 

1996 Bowman #68 Kevin Appier

Who knew Bowman was capable of such beauty? 

2013 Topps #69 Marco Scutaro

Celebrating in the rain. 

1994 Upper Deck Minors #70 Alvin Morman

I don't know about you, but this shot looks like something out of a horror movie to me.

1999 Topps #71 Roger Cedeno

Looks more like football than baseball. 

1998 Collector's Choice #72 Eduardo Perez

We close with a Web Gem of the multiple-exposure variety.

The polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

National dreaming

I already miss the National.

It's nothing short of cardboard heaven for collectors, and a small, kooky voice inside my head is telling me to start stowing money away so I can fly to Atlantic City for the 2016 National. I've always kind of had an inkling to see Atlantic City one day, and baseball cards would give me a perfect excuse.

Even if I do go next year, however, the trip is still eleven months away. The good news is that I can still live through both the cards I physically acquired at the National, and others I received in the mail right around the time I attended.

I was lucky enough to make two in-person trades at this year's convention, one of which was during my first meetup with longtime blogger buddy William of the terrific blog "Foul Bunt." (The other trade I made will be featured in an upcoming post.)

I had a big box of Orioles and others that I'd been saving for William for north of a year, so it was nice to finally get those in his hands. Better yet, he was nice enough to put together a team bag full of cardboard for me.

I picked up the base card of this 2015 GQ Vlad at the National, and now I have the mini to go along with it.

I can say with 100-percent certainty that this is the only Puddin' Head Jones card I own, because I think I'd remember if I had another card of a guy named Puddin' Head Jones.

On the right is one of the strangest photos you'll ever see in this hobby. It's actually a new addition to my sparse "Tribute to 42" mini-collection, but I'm not sure that was why William included it. You'll notice that it's technically an Ian Kinsler card, only Kinsler is nowhere to be seen in that particular photo.

I guess that's one way to get creative with the unlicensed photos in 2010 Upper Deck.

William closed things out with this Jim Abbott from 2011 Leaf Limited, a set I had no idea existed in the first place.

It's numbered to just 299 copies, and, despite the lack of logos, I love it.

Because any new Jim Abbott card is a treasure, plain and simple.

I had a handful of PWEs arrive on or around my day at the National.

Even with the stacks of gems I unearthed at the show, much of what I found in the envelopes did manage to stand out on its own. The first comes from Tim of the fantastic "I Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning," a blog which is sure to be in the running for Best New Blog of 2015.

Like William, Tim kicked off this PWE with a new addition to my Vlad collection with this nostalgic mini from 2005 Topps Cracker Jack.

I have very fond memories of opening packs of Cracker Jack in the backseat of my mom's car, hence the nostalgia.

I'd specifically requested these from Tim a little while before this envelope showed up.

This is the entire six-card 2015 White Sox Kids Club set, which includes five players and one goofy-looking mascot.

I don't get the chance to acquire many current oddballs these days (not many are produced to begin with), so having this group in my binders is a real treat.

From there, Tim went to work on my mini-collections.

Here's Donnie Baseball signing for a gaggle of Yankee fans.

I still think he needs to grow back that 'stache.

A couple for the "pitcher on the basepaths" and "double dip" themes, and the Kendrick is actually the first Toys 'R' Us parallel I own from any year of Topps.

I don't live near a Toys 'R' Us, and it doesn't seem like many other collectors have the urgency to go to one to get their baseball cards.

Luckily, Tim does.

This envelope produced my first and second purple Toys 'R' Us parallels, and I think they're fantastic. Like the Kendrick, this Salvador Perez is a treasured mini-collection hit (this one of the "interview" variety).

I never thought purple could mix with baseball cards, but Toys 'R' Us proved otherwise.

The final PWE of this post came courtesy of reader extraordinare Mark Hoyle.

Mark told me he was including one particular card in this envelope (which we'll see in a bit), but the rest he threw in were all surprises.

The GQ mini parade continued with this one of my personal favorite Cub, Anthony Rizzo.

There's another Rizzo sighting, this time of the blue foil Opening Day variety.

I've been collecting Javier Baez since he came up last year, and I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised by his improvements after watching him as a September call-up here in 2015.

Hopefully he'll become a regular in the big leagues sometime soon.

Jorge Soler was a bit of a disappointment this year.

I had high hopes for him, but, although he was a decent bat in the lineup, the power never really came.

No matter, as I'll still collect him all the same.

Mark's PWE wasn't limited to just Cubs.

This outstanding Opening Day "Superstar Celebrations" insert captures the ice-meets-skin point of impact for Adrian Beltre.

I'm a big fan of 2015 Opening Day's "Stadium Scenes" insert set, and Mark was gracious enough to throw a couple of those my way as well.

There's no way to know for sure, but the card on the left could be from a Dodgers-Cards game I attended last July.

OH MY GOD ICHIRO ACTUALLY HAS A TOPPS CARD NOW!!!!!!

Ten thousand points to A&G for that.

Mark is the king of vintage oddballs, and this trio of 1969 Topps Stamps cemented that title.

I have absolutely no idea how to store these, but they're still cool nonetheless.

This was the only card I knew Mark was sending.

I announced my intentions to track down a '75 Yaz at the National, but Mark did me one better by offering to send one of his dupes to me. This isn't a particularly rare or expensive card, and I'm not quite sure how I hadn't tracked one down as of last month.

Thankfully, this whale of a PWE put that mystery to bed once and for all.

While the chances are minimal that I'll be able to attend the 2016 National, I'm going to try my darndest to go.

If not...well, I always have these special PWEs that only the blogosphere has the magic to produce.

In defense of the Topps monopoly

(Disclaimer: Tonight's post is not saying that I'm in favor of the Topps monopoly, because I don't think anyone is. This is just one argument that could be used to defend Topps' cornering of the market.)

I've finally started cataloging my Vladimir Guerrero collection these past few weeks.

I own more cards of Vlad than any other single player, and it's not even close. I was approaching 800 different ones the last time I checked. For the most part, I wouldn't exactly say gone out of my way to acquire as many Vlads as possible. It's just that there's a lot of cards out there for me to chase.

Guerrero's sunset issue can be found in 2012 Topps. It's the only card he had released that year because Topps was well into its monopoly at the time, and didn't see fit to include him in any of their other checklists. Vlad was little more than an afterthought to Topps in 2012.

The peak of his career, I'd say, came between about 1998 to 2004.

And this is why there are so many cards of his on the market.

It does seem substantial to say that I own around 800 different Vlads, but I'm guessing that covers about two percent of the guy's entire catalog. Most collectors have taken to calling the late '80s/early '90s as the "overproduction era," but perhaps the label would be better used to describe the late '90s/early 2000s.

The popularity of baseball cards was in a downspin at the time, and, to card companies, the solution to that problem was apparently to print as many different sets as humanly possible. Vlad played in the peak of that gluttony of brands.

As I've been cataloging my Vlads, I've come across so many obscure sets from that period that I bet not one person remembers today.

I don't know about you, but I've sure never heard of this Piece of the Game brand.

Upper Deck may have been the worst culprit in the business.

The names are plenty. Everything from UD Ionix, Upper Deck Ballpark Idols, UD Black Diamond, and UD Authentics (which is seen above).

Not surprisingly, most of these obscure brands were one-and-done shots.

The almighty Topps had a foot in the pool as well.

They weren't as bad as most of the other companies, but long-forgotten releases like Topps Reserve did still manage to sneak onto the market.

I can't imagine many of these sets turned a profit.

Pretty much every card company was guilty of this overproduction during Vlad's heyday.

A lot of them were merely game-used jersey dumps, I assume (like the aforementioned Piece of the Game), while some others seemed to have the "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" mentality behind them.

Trouble is, only a small fraction of these sets actually stuck. Most faded into obscurity. I was collecting in the early 2000s, and I do vaguely remember slews of different brands being on the shelves at the card shop I used to frequent as a kid.

I felt overwhelmed.

Now, here in 2015, player collectors like myself have to come to grips with the fact that God-awful sets like Fleer Game Time actually existed in the first place.

What went on between around 1998-2004 was basically the polar opposite of what we're experiencing now. There were nearly a dozen different brands churning out truckloads of sets each year for the sheer purpose of making more cards.

In a perfect world, I'd like to have more of a choice with my dollar than Topps and unlicensed Panini brands, but, after thinking about it, I think I like the easy pace of today's hobby more than the flooded market I remember as a kid.

Granted, you could basically ignore the plethora of forgettable sets that came into existence in the early 2000s. But player collecting doesn't really work that way. Now, I know I'll have maybe a dozen base cards to chase of guys I collect each year, at the most.

I wasn't big on chasing cards of certain guys when I was a kid. Had I focused on Vlad and decided to collect him back in 2001 or so, I probably would've curled up in a corner and lamented the 80 different base cards I'd have to buy of his each year. (And that's not counting inserts, parallels, etc.)

And, believe me, the sets I've shown here today barely scratch the surface of all the one-and-done brands that were released during Vlad's career.

I probably still have a lot to track down, and part of me kind of wishes that Topps was the only game in town when Vlad was at his best.

The dime box frankenset, Page 7: Numbers 55-63

Last week's frankenset voting was a barnburner.

Win -- 1981 Fleer #46 John Wathan (8 votes)

Place (tie) -- 1998 Fleer Tradition #48 Wilton Guerrero, 1995 Stadium Club #51 Rex Hudler, 1996 Stadium Club #53 Jim Bullinger (6 votes each)

Show -- 1994 Score #52 Jose Rijo (2 votes)

We very nearly had a four-way tie for first last week, but, in the end, a couple late votes pushed John Wathan over the top. The 29 total votes were again a big drop from the 35-plus numbers we'd had in the past, but Wathan took the crown with eight of the 29 tallies.

Personally, this was the toughest frankenset choice I'd had to make in a while, and I was particularly torn between Wathan, the Brothers Guerrero, and Jim Bullinger. I went with the Guerreros after all was said and done, because, when you get down to it, I can't go against Vlad.

Wathan was my second choice, but he's still a deserving victor.

We have a fresh page of nominees this week, and let's see if we can get the vote totals back above 30...because the more votes, the better the competition.

Let's meet the newest nine.

1995 Collector's Choice #55 Sid Bream

The climax of perhaps the most famous play at the plate in baseball history. 

2000 Ultra #56 Jose Lima

Bat in hands + glove on head = LIMA TIME! 

1995 Pinnacle #57 Ryan Thompson

Trainer! 

1991 Score #58 Rick Parker

A last-second lunge for home plate. 

1997 Upper Deck #59 Walt Weiss

Turning two with the double play king himself, Walt Weiss. 

1994 Collector's Choice #60 Pat Borders

This is a particularly painful page, isn't it?

1994 Sportflics Rookie/Traded #61 Carlos Rodriguez

Double dipping the 3-D way. 

1998 Upper Deck #62 Chris Snopek

A multiple-exposure Web Gem. 

2015 Stadium Club #63 Matt Adams

We close with a tip of the cap from this year's Stadium Club.

The polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

The winds of change bring PWEs

I feel like I've been saying this all the time lately, but...I have a couple more announcements regarding my posting habits on the blog.

1) You may start to see more late evening/nighttime posts (like this one) show up as, due to work and school, my usual 6-7 P.M. blogging window isn't open much these days.

2) I do apologize to everyone who has sent me great cards over the last couple months because I've once again fallen hopelessly behind with my trade posts. I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but some of what you'll see in this post arrived nearly two months ago.

I mean, I have three separate posts to write on just the small packages and/or PWEs that have been hitting my doorstep. It's about time I showcased these wonderful cards people have been gracious enough to send me, because, if I've learned one thing around here, it's that good things can indeed come in small packages.

The Luis Aparicio insert you see above came from Gavin, the guy you might know as the mind behind the terrific blog "Baseball Card Breakdown."

The "Looie" was actually a throw-in with these two, which I had specifically requested from Gavin.

I loved the idea of reproducing the '68 Topps Game design in this year's Archives, and I couldn't help but pounce on these two Cubbies. And, as an added bonus, their correlating actions (if anyone actually plays the game anymore, which I highly doubt) are quite fitting.

Rizzo's currently leading the league in hit-by-pitches, and Javier Baez is a strikeout machine.

Gavin helped me out with my new "Shooter" collection as well.

I had recently placed a Just Commons order (which has yet to arrive) that included north of 50 new Becks for my collection, but I don't believe any of those were older than these two. 

The '92 Ultra on the right lists "Shooter" as a rookie, but the '89 Star minor league issue on the left outdoes that one by a good three years.

Am I crazy, or does Rod Beck look like an alien without his famous facial hair?

These two Panini Cooperstowns came courtesy of a small PWE I received from my buddy Zach of the great blog "The Underdog Card Collector."

The Cooperstown brand may be defunct (for now), but I do still need singles from its inaugural offering in 2012.

There really should be more Whitey Herzog cards.

These next few gems came from the man who is generally regarded as the PWE King of the Blogosphere, none other than Jeff of "2x3 Heroes."

If there was one saving grace to the God-awful Donruss brand, it was the ability to say HEY TOPPS! We have Ichiro cards and you don't! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

But now they can't even say that anymore. Ichiro showed up in this year's A&G after assumedly signing a contract with Topps sometime in recent months.

So now Donruss is completely worthless.

I don't believe Jeff collects "autograph" shots, but I do know that, like myself, he chases "broken bat" cards.

He gifted me a new one with that Billy Ashley (a dupe, I assume), which I almost missed at first glance.

Jeff surprised me with a second PWE not long after that first one, and this quartet of Golden Age minis fell out of it.

My favorite of the lot here is probably the Joe Tinker, although the Arnold Rothstein (the big money behind the 1919 World Series fix) is no slouch.

Note to, well...everyone: If you have any spare Golden Age minis lying around, I'm always in the market.

Jeff made it a Panini-centric envelope with this Diamond Kings "Wee Willie" Keeler.

I'm still deciding whether I like the brand or not, but this one is pretty darn nice.

Next up is a PWE I received from Brian of the terrific "Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary" blog.

Brian has quickly made himself known as one of the better bloggers and traders around here, and he gifted me what can be described as nothing short of a legendary box of hand-picked cards during our meeting at this year's National. But that's for another post which I'll be writing very soon.

Before that, Brian dropped a smaller envelope on me in the standard through-the-mail way.

I've always enjoyed this "Masked Mauraders" subset, and the fact that this one features Brad Ausmus (a top-tier player collection guy) is an added bonus.

Here's not one, but two new "anthemic" cards...from the same set, no less.

Looks like Stadium Club had a brief obsession with these types of shots in 1995.

The parade of PWEs continues with these two from Weston of the awesome "Fantastic Catch" blog.

I already had the Vlad, but I wanted to show it again to bask in the glory of how oddly-shaped that "All-World" insert series was.

The Rendon "bat barrel," however, was all new to me.

Now we've come to a PWE from my single most frequent trading partner here in the blogosphere, Mark of the legendary blog "This Way to the Clubhouse...".

I have a hazy memory of Mark and I actually emailing one another and setting up a specific, concrete trade once, but that was a long time ago. We simply surprise each other with unannounced PWEs now.

He certainly caught me off-guard with this reprint of former Sox manager Paul Richards. What you see here is actually a reprint from the oddball '54 Wilson Franks set, which, as you can tell, drew heavily on the design of 1954 Topps.

Now that I think of it, you don't see reprints of oddball releases too often, do you?

Mark added to the fun with a couple brand new mini-collection hits here.

And I feel compelled to share the secret every time I post a Sportflix card: scan your 3-D cards sideways for better results.

I feel out of breath (in a writerly sense) with all the great traders I've given credit to in this post, and the last of this bunch comes from Robert of the spectacular "$30 A Week Habit."

Robert recently took a brief hiatus from the blogs, but I'm happy to see that he's back and chugging along again. He was nice enough to hit me with a GQ-based PWE as of late.

When you combine minis and Mr. Cub, it's hard to go wrong.

I've always said that Gypsy Queen is among the top in the insert game these days, and these two add fuel to that train of thought.

I love this year's "Walk Off Winners" series, and I'm positive that Dykstra will be fighting for a spot in my Cards of the Year countdown come December.

We close with a serious head-shaker on the part of Topps.

Listen: I always love throwbacks, and this is a most-appreciated addition to my Cubs binder. But as if the fact that "The Queen's Throwbacks" concept is a ripoff of the "Franchise Flashbacks" from Opening Day wasn't bad enough, this is the exact same photo Topps used for Anthony Rizzo's card in that Opening Day series.

In summation, Topps used a recycled photo for a recycled idea. But, at the end of the day, Rizzo is Rizzo and a throwback is a throwback, and I'm happy Robert chose to send this one my way.

Whew. Seven different trading partners in one post...and that was only one of three PWE marathons I'll be writing in the next handful of days.

Looks like people really are getting the most out of their stamps these days.