Latest pickups

I recently saw some cool things on eBay and decided to finish some sets and grab some cool pieces of history. Let’s start off with the sets. 

A few years ago, I was able to purchase a 1998 Topps Inaugural Rays complete set from a guy on Facebook for less than the price of the regular set. This set gave me 2/3 of a Rays master 1998 Topps set, with the regular and Inaugural Rays versions complete, and the Inaugural Diamondbacks set missing. I found a decent priced Rays Inaugural D-Backs set on eBay, and was able to get a Rays 2002 Topps Total team set and get a reduced shipping charge. 

That’s the D-Backs set. 

There’s the regular set. 

And the Inaugural Rays set. 

I could kick it up one more notch and try to go for the Minted in Cooperstown parallel set. I’m still missing a few, but I’m close to halfway done with that one. 

8 of 17 ain’t too bad. If I were really nuts, I could go for the Chrome and Chrome Refractor versions and complete a team rainbow. I’ll keep picking up singles here and there and see how close I can get. Here’s a Tony Saunders rainbow if you were wondering what it looks like. 

Base, Inaugural Diamondbacks, Inaugural Rays, Minted in Cooperstown, Chrome, and Chrome Refractor. 

The other items I picked up were kind of historical items. I remember when Topps Chrome first debuted in 1996 that it was a huge set. The first Chrome set came out in 1993 with Topps Finest, and Topps Chrome was a premium brand with some novelty still attached to it when it came out in 1996. I found an advertising panel for the set, and at around 10 bucks, I felt the price was right. 

Mike Piazza, Cal Ripken, and Tom Glavine grace the front. 

There is just info about the set on the back. 

I also found another panel for 1997 Bowman Chrome. This was the set that started the rookie craze and paved the way for the iconic Bowman Chrome autographed rookie card. While the autographed rookie wouldn’t come out until 2001, had the 1997 Chrome set never happened, we wouldn’t have the 2001 Pujols autographed rookie, the 2010 Trout autographed rookie, and all of the other autographed Bowman Chrome rookies. Name a player, and they probably have an autographed Bowman Chrome rookie. The 1997 Bowman Chrome set made that possible. 

I’m going to keep this flier with my Chipper Jones cards. 

I would love to find an ad sheet like this of 1993 Topps Finest. I have a 1989 Upper Deck DeWayne Buice promo card, and with the 2 promo sheets I added to my collection, I feel like I have some of the iconic sets represented. Maybe just need the Finest sheet (if it exists), and something from 1991 Stadium Club, 1990 Leaf, and 1989 Bowman. 

I’ve had a little bit of fun lately, as I’ve attended 2 Stetson University baseball games. The first one actually wasn’t a Stetson game, but was a tournament game of Notre Dame and Iowa that was played at Stetson’s home park. I met up with my friend Jim, and got him a card of Wes Obermueller that he got signed, and I got a Nick Ungs 2004 Topps card signed. 

On Tuesday, we went to see Stetson play FGCU. It was supposed to have a baseball card giveaway, but they gave away pennants instead. They had schedule posters in the entrance of the park, and I got one to get signed by the 4 players on it. Kyler and I had the poster, 3 cards from a 2023 Stetson set, and a 1993 Topps Traded Andy Barkett to get signed. Andy’s son Isaiah plays for Stetson, and he usually attends the games. Kyler helped me spot everyone on the poster before the game, so we got that one done. Later, Jim pointed out where Barkett was sitting, and we got him. Isaiah Barkett was on the poster, so I got a father and son in the same day. I don’t think that has ever happened before. The game was kind of bittersweet for me. My stepdad had been battling cancer, and passed away the day before. He treated me like his own kid, and we’ve been to many ballgames together. He beat me at a pool noodle tossing contest at a Corpus Cristi Hooks game in 2017. A Texas native, he would always say ‘God bless Texas’ after the national anthem. After the anthem at the Stetson game, I gave a good ‘God bless Texas’. While Stetson fell behind 9-0, and intimately lost 14-12, I think my stepdad gave Stetson some magic as they hit a Grand Slam and pulled to within 2. It was Kylers first Grand Slam, and made the defeat a little easier to swallow. We’re going to the game on Tuesday as our church purchased a section of seats. I grabbed another schedule poster that I’ll get signed, and let Kyler have the first one. I also found a few more players in the 2023 Stetson set that are one the roster, so I added them to my stack, and we’ll try to get those finished tomorrow. Before the game, I’ll pay John from Johnny’s Trading Spot a visit and look through some of his trade boxes. I have some Braves for him that he can hopefully use. 

Maybe someday I’ll find more 1998 Topps versions of Rays cards to complete that rainbow someday, as well as finding a 1993 Finest ad. While the Rays might not be a popular team among collectors and ‘96 Topps Chrome and ‘97 Bowman Chrome might be sets that make flippers laugh, they are all cool to me, and I will continue collecting stuff like that because that’s what I’m into. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

Taking some time for the 'custom'ers

 Originally when I started this blog, it was where I could post images of my custom cards. I never dreamed that it would lead to me making entire complete checklists of missing players from Topps sets, let alone finishing any off. Well, that happened, and I decided to post about my real cards along the way. That has led to many trades, and a (basically) complete run of Topps sets from 1980-2002. I do many more posts about my card collection and very rarely make custom posts anymore, but I still make them. 

Recently, an opportunity came up where I could print some basically for free, so I figured it would be as good a time as ever to finish off some Topps Rays team sets. I've already posted about the 1998 Topps Rays set, so I'll start off with the 1999 Topps set. These include the Traded sets as well. Currently, I have the 1998-2003 sets finished, and the only thing that is keeping me from starting on the 2004 set is just figuring out how to get that outline of the photo that is in the box on the lower left hand corner of the design. I think I may have figured out a way, though. Without further interruption, here is your 1999 Topps and Topps Traded set of missing Rays players and coaches. (Note:The Traded sets start after the managers and coaches in the set)

Any of the photos with the numbers on the bottom corners were some of my first works, done about 10 or 11 years ago. The number on the bottom matches to the number in the set, and the one on the right is the number as it relates to the customs I've done if the first one started with the number one. 

Some of these first works have errors like player names being done in a too light or too dark color, which made them tough to see, or things like incorrect font types. As my laptops, photo editing programs, and skill got better, the errors were fewer and further in between, and some cards that I had to add logos to or blend colors together in order to get rid of watermarks are done so well, that you might not be able to tell. 

This Riddoch one appeared on HaughtCorner.com in an interview with Larry Rothschild. 

Starting with these ones, the fonts are correct and more detail is paid to how the actual set had things. They were probably made within the past year. 

(except for this one). I believe another person made it, and I had to change the font with the name and it came out outlined in white for some reason. 

Rookie of Jim Morris, the guy the movie 'The Rookie' with Dennis Quaid was based off of. 

Really the only good photo of Sparks I could use came from a 2000 Bowman card. It will appear in the next few sets. 

2000 Topps/Topps Traded

Sparks card #2 with the same photo

R.I.P., Tropicana Field

Really wish the Highlights cards in 2000 and 2001 would say what the highlight was. This one is for hitting a HR in his 35th different park. 

I believe I had to remove an autograph from this one, as it was the only photo of Enders I could find.

This one was worse. Only photo of Fiore as a Ray, and it had watermarks completely over the photo. The beard and neck look a little airbrushed, but other than that, I'm happy. 

Did anyone remember Doc Gooden as a Ray?

(The 2nd Guthrie card should have the name as Travis Harper. This is an uncorrected error so far)

Had to take a photo of Taylor as a Rockie and make it into a Rays one. The hat almost looks real. 

2001 Topps/Topps Traded

The 3rd and last Sparks card with the same photo. 

The new logo for the Rays (see photo on next card) debuted in 2001. Morris last pitched for Tampa in 2000, but in the movie, they showed him pitching in the 2001 new Rays uniforms. I called that out the minute I saw that in the theatre, and I wish more people would have noticed that other than me. 

Rolls is one of my favorite Rays. He couldn't hit, and played on some of those miserable early '00's Rays teams, but he hit 2 HRs off of Roger Clemens of the Yankees on my birthday in 2003, and kept Roger from getting win 300. 

Another highlight card with no caption. This was Fred’s 400th HR. 

This design is a variation of the 3-player top prospects subset in 2001 Topps, and was actually used as a 1-player design in a Cubs Wrigley Field stadium giveaway set (good luck finding one, Dime Box Nick!). 

I wouldn't mind if Topps had a 'rookie card' emblem like that again. 

Best I could do with Mike Judd was a Dodgers hat. 

Prieto was easier with a hatless photo and a Tigers uni. Just had to airbrush out the 'D' logo on his undershirt. 

Rose had a minor league card for the Rockies that was my only option. I sent him an e-mail care of his baseball school asking if he had any Rays photos of himself, but no response so far. 

The guy who got us Scott Kazmir and did nothing for the Mets. 

I went to a decent amount of Rays games in the early '00's, and I must've missed Daulton as a Rays coach, because I was away at college in Mobile, Alabama in starting in the fall of 2001, and although I went to one of the games in Cal Ripken, Jr.'s last series that year, I just don't remember Daulton being there, because I would've brought along one of his cards to get signed. I believe I could've looked up the roster online back in 2001. Showing my age. 

2002 Topps/Topps Traded 

This set was a doozy with the curved nameplate, but I figured it out by just rotating the name by 11 degrees either way. The worst part was actually making the template, as well as getting the lettering on the side right, because I had to outline it pixel by pixel not only around the letter, but inside it as well. 

Rusty was a class act. Saw him 2 times in 1996 Spring Training when the Royals came to Lakeland and played the Tigers. He signed autographs for everyone in the bullpen, and him, Jason Jacome, Sal Fasano, Mike Sweeney, and Mike Magnante were great. Not sure who was the person who started it, but once, I had a baseball, the first player signed it, then passed it to the rest of the bullpen, and I had a ball with 10 signatures by the time it got back to me. I’ll have to grab a picture of it sometime. That whole team was great with autographs. Tom Goodwin, Bob Boone, Johnny Damon, Mendy Lopez, and Jeff Grotewold were all great signers at Spring Training that year. 

Boggs sunset card

Daulton sunset card if anyone cares. 

I found a better pic of May, so I might have to re-do this one later. 

I'm pretty sure this is a photo of McCarty. I tried to find it again when I made the 2003 card of him, and it was gone. 

A card that really should’ve made the Traded set. CC was a great player during his prime. Had the cheap Rays re-signed him, he could be a retired number. 

2003 Topps/Topps Traded

Wilson Alvarez sunset card 

Lee told me he grew his goatee for his 2001 Royal  Rookies card, almost like he knew he was going to get on a card so he wanted to look good. 

Sturtze almost gave up as many HRs as Esteban Yan and Dennis Springer 

This was the McCarty I had to do since I couldn't find the first photo. One of him with the Giants, and the small photo with the Red Sox. 

Ther wasn’t a manager card for the Rays in the 2003 Topps set. McRae finally gets his due

For some guys, like Carlos Reyes, they only had 1 photo as a Ray, so I had to repeat it for the smaller one.

Rocker is a d-bag, but was always nice signing autographs for fans. 

Another missed chance for Topps. 

Absolutely nothing in a Rays uni for Adam Piatt. 

That wraps it up for the Rays customs. I’ve tried to outline a photo in GIMP earlier today, and it got halfway right, but I’m not all the way there. Perhaps I will see if a YouTube tutorial can help. Depending on what happens, I’ll start the 2004 set, or just go on to the 2005 set. 

I’m off on Friday, so I’ll be hitting customs and perhaps putting some cards in binders. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy